


Zootopia: Where the Wild Things Are [OLD 2016]

by zoo_to_hell



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, Blood and Gore, Body Horror, Brutal, Conspiracy, Dystopian Zootopia, Edgy, F/M, Genocide, Gore, Government Conspiracy, Mental Health Issues, Romance, Sad, Schizophrenia, Self-Harm, T.A.M.E. Shock Collars (Zootopia), Zootopia (City), Zootopia Police Department, i was super sad during this time leave me alone, kinda insensitive, this story is OLD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-10
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-15 14:10:33
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 21
Words: 41,515
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16934718
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zoo_to_hell/pseuds/zoo_to_hell
Summary: Zootopia has become a cesspool.Predators are assigned collars that have needles inside them; designed to push into their throats if they get unruly.Nick Wilde, 22, a depressed schizophrenic, works at a D.P.C.U, which picks up the dead bodies of predators after their needles go off to be disposed of.Judy Hopps, an egotistic, naive rabbit, has just become part of the police force, assigned to a new task; predators collars are going off remotely controlled, not triggered. Someone is purposely killing them off.When the two meet, everything will change for them.A measure of an animal is not his abilities, it's Where Their Wild Things Are.





	1. Nick is Dead

**Author's Note:**

> keep in mind, this story is old. VERY old. as i am a very old man (jk), but if this story comes off as at all brutalizing, dehumanizing (or demammalizing or whatever). this was originally on my wattpad, which ironically, has become the cesspool my story tears apart at. it'll be very sparingly editied to showcase my writing at that time those years ago. other than that, enjoy.  
> \- zü

The rain.

The rain slammed the city, with a force only matching the roar of the loudest of lions.

The sky was a deep grey, darkening out the sun for thousands of miles. It kept the city in a shroud.

This city was Zootopia, and dear reader, don't let the name deceive you; this is no utopia.

This is, for lack of a better world, a grey, dirty hell; where the power hungry ran a tyranny, and the citizens were treated in the most vile and unfair ways imaginable.

Predatory animals, while rather docile in this modern time, were looked down upon as monsters. Monsters with only the urge to kill, not raise families, not love, not learn; **_but to kill._**

This is where the story starts, with one of these "monsters", a fox named Nick P. Wilde, sitting at his window desk in his dark room, on August 29th, 1999.

¤

The fox's room was dark, and musty. The walls and low ceiling enclosed him in their claustrophobic way, the light bulb burnt out from many months ago. A deep, dark blue blanketed the rough, carved wood, and... two quivering arms.

One laying down on the table, scarred, fur in miss matched patterns. The other was above it, holding an Exact-o knife. The fox was shaking, eyes dilated to dots the size of an ant.

His breath was shaking, and his stomach felt empty, cold sweat breaking out over his fur. His muzzle was contracted, fear carved into his face.

The blade was sharp and shiny, while his fur was a spiced reddish orange. Such a stark contrast.

Lined up against the windowsill on the desk, were dozens of hackysack dolls, all seemingly homemade, and needles shoved inside of them. They seemed to be as full of pain, as were Nick's eyes.

The fox felt his eyes burning, tears began to form in the corners of them, and he brought the exact-o knife down, and he cut a diagonal line in his flesh.

He screamed; screamed with an intensity that rivaled the heat of a boiling sun. He cut and cut, until there were three X's carved in his right arm, bleeding a deep, dark, shineless crimson.

His breathing was erratic, his body shook with tremors, and he moaned in pain, moaned with hurt.

His shaking eyes glanced to the desk, where the dolls were all lined up, faceless and nameless.

They locked onto the pins in the dolls.

_Dolls of voodoo are stuck with pins._

A voice rang in his ears, a very angry, horrible voice; that didn't exist.

He gulped, and with reached to pull a pin out of one of the dolls.

The pin was dull, no shine, but all the more sharp at the end. With his quivering finger, he jabbed into his arm, alongside the heavily bleeding x's.

_A pin for each of us and our sins._

Nick cried out in pain, he reached for another pin, and jabbed it, then another and another.

Soon, his arm was stuck with twelve pins, all bleeding in thin lines, making their ways to the thick, black oozing crimson waves from the larger X's.

He whimpered, tears tearing down his voice. They were supposed to take away the emotion. The anger. The sadness. It did nothing, everytime.

But... He still did it every Thursday. The day his parents had died.

This was the not only the day his father had finally kicked the fucking bucket (good riddance, Nick had thought), but the day father Wilde went off his rockers and hit his mother one last time too hard...

Nick cried outloud, moaning in sorrowful pain.

He wanted the pain to somehow fix him. Fix him. _Fix him._

"Fix me..."

He stared at the blood, how it oozed, how the flesh was torn up.

"Fix me.."

The X's stared back, sneering in their bloody ways.

" ** _FIX ME!"_**

The blood flowed, and so did his tears. Nick gritted his teeth and stared deep into the window, managing to make out his faint reflection.

His fur was ragged, eyes drooping, black underlining his eyes like a whore with too much mascara.

_And he hated it._

Nick Wilde, 22, parentless; was a depressed schizophrenic.

**XXX**

After the cuts just started to have the blood congeal, the fox got ready to go to work.

His hands were dirty, his pockets empty of any money; dressed in janitor overalls. He put on the worn baseball cap, with a _D.P.C.U._ logo on the face.

A white paw in a trash bag was stitched on the coveralls, a logo that was more like a label, a smug little label that totally degraded the worker. It just snickered; _look at me, I pick up dead predators, like myself._

It was funny that the public service only employed predators.

Maybe it was a way of striking fear into their hearts.

Nick brushed his teeth in his dirty sink, didn't bother to comb his fur, and took his medications.  
Then Nick noticed himself in the mirror. His face was a sad, slightly open maw. His eyes were anxious and tired, and he looked like a dark, depressed cloud.

Then he saw the blinking collar at his neck, which inside, held the needle which killed predators when they stepped out of line.

Which created the need for the job he currently worked at.

He turned his eyes away in disgust. They didn't even trigger for real reasons anymore, any predator that even remotely raised their heartrate was in danger of having that needle penetrate their throats.

It only made him feel worse. More sad... Mommy was looking down from heaven and instead of her little boy being successful, happy; he was cutting himself, crying, staring at old pictures of mommy and daddy when they used to love each other.

Nick wanted to die. But he couldn't bring himself to do so.

Instead, he marched like a good little tin soldier out his apartment, ready to pick up the bodies of the deceased, of his own kind.

While he was very much alive, inside;

Nick was dead.

¤

_"Momma?"_

_Nick's mother gently held her son to her breast, looking to the skies together._

_Nick's father was in the tree beside them, hammering away at a tree house, Mrs. Wilde taking glances at his back muscles working with each swing._

_She smiled, and sipped on her iced tea. Her son giggled and pointed to the sky._

_"Momma, I wanna be a spaceman when I grow up!"_

_His mother's heart melted with happiness, and she hadn't felt any happier._

_"This is Zootopia Nick. You can be anything you want to be."_

_Above, while hammering away peacefully at a board on the clubhouse he was building his son, he felt a little headache head his way, something normal._

_Only it wasn't normal._

_Today, Razor E. Wilde had a tumor that would later effect his mental stability, began to grow in his brain. While only the size of a speck of dust at the moment, it would later escalate to something that would change the course of his son's life._

_He would be the shaman, and his son would be a voodoo doll._


	2. The Very Old Suicide Machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meet Judy, she needs a scapegoat.

An alarm clock rang in an ugly, aged, yet strictly organized and neat room. A small paw stretched out from under sheets, and quickly snapped the off button, and out leaped a rabbit with deep purple eyes, and tall ears.

This rabbit was fairly large for rabbits, around three quarters the size of a fox, and was scrambling around the room, assembling her uniform together.

Rabbit police Officer, Judy Hopps, was ready for work, her first day as a real cop, not just a meter maid or donut fetcher, but an _officer._

She wasn't proud of how she got to her position, which involved much... _Predator trampling,_ but that didn't matter, those _things_ didn't matter.

She smiled, fists balled up, a bow smile on her face, and eyes filled with lavender excitement.

Maybe this time mom and dad would finally notice her, out of all her hundreds of brothers and sisters, she may be the one they remember.

It's all she ever wanted.

_Ever..._

Judy loaded her belt, her pistol in its holster, radio in clip, and baton in the sling.

Judy felt like Princess Charming.

She was going to make sure mom and dad finally noticed her.

After all these years...

Finally.

¤

_"Hey ma! Look, it's me!"_

_"Ma!"_

_"Mom."_

_"Mom?"_

_"Papa?"_  
_¤_

"Officer Hopps,"

__That felt so good, she felt so good. To be called_ _ ___o_ _ _ __f_ _ __f_ _ __ic_ _ __e_ _ __r_ _ __._ _ _She was being given the attention she always wanted! Sure, it wasn't from her parents yet, but it was enough to make her day._

"Today you're watching over workers deployed over at the D.P.C.U."

Judy's heart sank to a bottomless pit in her chest. She wasn't going to be doing anything important, hell, it was worse than being a meter maid.

She was watching over the stupid predators, _the fucking stupid predators cleaning up their own filth off of the street._

To say the least, Judy was NOT happy. It was cold, rainy, and sure as hell not a nice day to see predators pick up other deceased predators because their collars went off.

The chief, an aging, emotionally bleached, blue bull named Edwin Bogo; assigned the roles of the other, seemingly emotionless officers, letting them go off on their routine tasks.

This left behind a very angry Judy, after the room had cleared out. She had taken this nonsense of doing stupid tasks for a month. She did not graduate in the top of her class at the academy for this.

She was going to have a chat with the chief.

Right out of the briefing room was Chief Bogo's office, the door a distorted glass, with his name printed in gold letters over the dull, emotionless window.

The whole police department always seemed to be dead, no matter how much life was buzzing around inside it.

While it unsettled the emotionally unstable Judy Hopps, she gulped it down, as she did for the rest of her life. She was born with a heart full of fairness; kindness.

She was bullied for it. Nobody could think fairly in this world, they had to follow the rules of a society that wanted badly to advance, but were held back by their own hate.

This made her who she was today. She didn't know who was the enemy anymore, she let her emotions find that out for themselves.

Judy carefully approached, a fire set in her belly, ears drooping, her knees wobbling. Her knuckle came in contact with the door.

A muffled "come in", was heard, and Judy padded into the jumbo sized office.

"Chief Bogo?"

"Hopps."

Judy gulped, and carved her face to seem a little threatening.

"Sir, I don't understand why I am still stuck doing useless tasks for the police force. I feel as if my talent is being wasted sir."

"I haven't even asked to state your business, Hopps."

Judy's heart already sunk. This wasn't going to work. The chief was just about as stuck up as he ever was, this wasn't going to change anything.

For the worse, things were going to change, possibly.

"I am sorry sir, but-"

"Do _not_ question my authority Hopps, I am warning you and your ability to continue working on this force. I do what's best for the city as I see it,"

Judy gulped.

"And as I see it, you're position is in jeopardy if you don't see to escorting those predators by eight fifteen."

Judy wanted to cry. This isn't how it was supposed to work, but oh! When did anything ever work in this society!

"Yes sir. Sorry sir."

Judy marched out of his office, stomach full of regret, and heart full of anger.

 _Somebody is going to feel my wrath,_ she thought.

¤

Nick Wilde stated dully out of the van window, the sky a deep, sickly, blue. There was almost no light peeking through the thick clouds, and it bathed the city in rain and depression.

It didn't make anything better for Nick.

Aside him, was a Fennec fox, fur sandy blonde, around 24, who was coughing up his lung; a result of his heavy cigarette and alcohol abuse.

He was driving, dressed in the same work overalls as Nick.

"Nick, buddy."

Nick's expression was soft, blank.

"What's up Finnick."

The Fennec fox hacked again, chest painfully heaving. "You didn't again, did you?"

Nick felt ashamed, and played dumb. "Do what?"

The little fox growled, following the van's GPS to a collar that had gone off last night.

"Don't play dumb with me Nick. Show me your left arm."

Nick gulped, and sunk into the old, crusty fabric seat. His eyes wandered off out to the window, his ears becoming consumed with the drizzle of rain against the moving vehicle.

"Finnick, I didn't, I promise."

The little fox took a right, following the GPS on the dashboard. He shook his head, bearing his fangs. "I'm calling your bullshit Nick. Show me your arm goddammit."

Nick hesitated, and felt a cold wave of shame run through him. "Please don't tell on me Finnick. If the boss finds out I'm doing this again he'll fire me and I won't have a home. I'm living on thin ice here."

Finnick inhaled, and exhaled loudly, intensely angry, preparing for the mess his working friend had made.  
"Just show me Nick."

Nick looked away, in shame, and carefully peeled back his sleeve.

_**"Are you fucking serious Nick?"** _

Nick pulled his sleeve back, eyes carved, and his face heating up. "Sorry..."

Finnick stopped the van in front of a bus stop.

"How many tines do I tell you Nick, this isn't going to fix shit, you're going to end up killing yourself if you don't sto-"

Nick exploded, and his schizophrenia was beginning to act out, sending his mind in a confused angry spiral. "You don't think I know?! Finnick, this isn't me when I do it, I can't stop myself.."

Finnick exhaled, laying flatly against his seat.

"Nick. I know it hurts dude, by all fucking means on earth, it hurts. It doesn't mean you can do this to yourself! Do you know how I deal with my emotions Nick?"

Nick turned his head, grumpy, eyes drooping. "You get drunk. Fucking _really drunk._ "

"Fuck yes I do. It makes me forget Nick, and sometimes... Forgetting is good."

Nick growled, and unbuckled his seat belt. "Are we picking up Dylan? Do I need to move to the back?"

Finnick hacked up a lung, and motioned a yes with his finger.

Nick pushed the door open, and was out in the rain, it drizzled his work overalls, went into his shirt, and made him even more grumpy.

He opened up the second van door, and hopped in, whipping his cap of water, growling.

"Where the fuck is Dylan? Fucking wolverine take forever to do anything. Lazy pieces of shit."

Finnick shook his head, laughing. "Shut up, you're lazy too, fucking moron."

"Fuck you Finnick."

"Fuck you too."

They had a laugh, and waited another four minutes, till there was a metal knocking against the door, and it opened, showing a wolverine, dressed in his work overalls, no cap, with long, thick hair.

"Hey guys."

Nick snarled at him. "What took you so long?"

"Jesus Nick, calm down. I had to talk some girl I had over last night in leaving."

Finnick chuckled. "Fucking perv."

Nick, while his friend, hated the wolverine. He was just a work friend, but outside of it, Nick wouldn't care whether he was alive or dead. The wolverine just hated anyone and everything besides his friends, he was as tall as Nick, as strong as Nick, and just as damn smart.

Nick hated that.

A ring on the dashboard radio caught their attention. Finnick reached for it. "Dispatch, this is crew X-15, state notification, over."

"X-15, your police escort today is Officer Judy Hopps, please report to Remcon Park. It seems there has been a substantial amount of collars going off in that area; over."

Finnick grunted, Dylan the Wolverine smacked his lips, and Nick sunk into his seat, listening to the pitter patter of rain against the van.

Finnick spoke slowly, with sandy anger crunching out of his clenched teeth. "Will do, X-15 signing out of radio, _over._ "

He slammed the radio on the dirty dashboard, littered with grease, junk food wrappers, smudges, and scratches. The floor was a crusted fabric, stained with mud and blood from their boots.

"One escort I've never heard of. Probably a new officer." Finnick mumbled, turning his keys in the car to get it running again.

"Great. All we need is a fucking officer who's gonna torment us because they're new." Dylan mumbled, fingering a cigarette out of his breast pocket, and digging a lighter out of his pocket.

"Since when have the police not tormented us? They'll just click on our shock collars with their stupid remotes for fun sometimes." Nick spoke with a snarky tone from the back, crossing his arms and pulling his cap over his eyes.

"Except for Wolford, he's cool. He brought us food plenty of times just with no reason. Usually people use us." Finnick coughed heavily afterwards, taking a final right, and there was Remcon park, with a single police cruiser parked... And a rabbit police officer outside, hood over her head, jacket splotched with heavy rain.

"A rabbit?" Dylan scoffed, squinting out the windshield, his grin growing so large, his stark white fangs were out in plain sight.

"You've got to be fucking _kidding me._ " Finnick spat, rubbing and stretching his temples.

"What's so bad about a little carrot farming bunny?" Nick asked, cocking his brow, looking between their seats from the back.

Finnick turned his head around to him, expression angry. "Rabbits hate foxes idiot! Predators as a whole, _way_ more than any other species!"

Nick frowned.

Outside, the rabbit looked at the van with anger.

Nobody was going to make her work with these people _fairly,_ not when the police force didn't treat her fairly.

As the van opened, and the first animal stepped out, a red fox with long sleeves and his fur a mess, she held up a remote with two buttons, shock and kill; and pressed shock, and held it.

The fox went tumbling to the floor screaming, and the rabbit had a smug smirk bowed on her face.

_Much better._


	3. ...And There Was Justice for Nobody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy proves her authority, Nick wants to kill her.  
> Authority only lasts as long as the people allow.

_"Mama!" A young bunny_ _called out in a huge crowd of other, cute little bunnies like her. They were all talking, dancing playing, hundreds of them, and Judy was at the back, a little crayon drawing_ _in her petite paws._

_It was a crude, childish picture of her as a police officer, a little arrow pointed at the smallest bunny that said "me." There were two taller bunnies that had arrows also titling them, "mommy and daddy", with another bunny that was dressed in black and white. He was the "bad guy"._

_Judy held her picture carefully, and tried pushing her way through the crowd, but was only thrown out by jostling and playing, hitting her side on the couch._

_"Ow! Hey guys, that hurt!'_

_...n_ _obody listened, they all just played and pranced and yelled, while her parents were playing with her other_ _siblings. They didn't even notice her, not for the past four years._ _Four years. Just served food from their family buffet, no love,_ _ **no late night tuck ins from mommy,**_ _just neglect_.

_She felt heartbroken. Nobody cared about her, being the oldest, and the first, she was just a number out of three hundred and fifteen brothers and sisters._

_Holding back tears and sobs, Judy ran outside to her favorite thinking tree stump, along a quiet, long country road._

_She sobbed, she held her drawing under her leg, and she wiped her young, ten year old eyes._

_It was a mistake to re-open them, because when she did,there was her fear, just right under being forgotten in the family;_ _**Gideon Grey.** _

_"What's little bunny crying about? Someone pulled her ears?" He snickered, snapping his suspenders, whipping the long, red long hair behind his head._

_"No Gideon, leave me alone.."_  
_Judy tried holding back her tears to be tough, to be a big girl._

_It didn't convince Gideon._

_"Leave you alone? But I just wanted to play with you!" He howled with laughter, and slapped his knee. He started coughing, and once his fit stopped, he spat on the grass next to her feet._

_"Why are you so mean Gideon?"_  
_Judy fumed, mind angry but heart beating with anxiety._

_Gideon's expression faded, and was locked dead serious._

_"I think you should ask the question, why are you_ _**bunnies** _ _so mean."_

_Judy was puzzled, and let her defense down. Her noise twitched, and ears fell. "What do you mean?"_

_Gideon snarled. "Don't act like your "daddy" didn't tell you! He denied my dad work in his farm, just because he's a fox!"_

_Judy's eyes burned. Her heart was pumping quickly. "Because all you foxes want to do is hurt us, my daddy told me!"_

_For the first time Judy had ever seen, Gideon Grey looked hurt._  
_"Did he really?"_

_Judy's expression softened. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, it's just I got mad and daddy told me that once... I didn't believe him! You can't judge all fox--"_

_Gideon snapped, and shoved her off of the tall tree stump, where she fell backwards and hit her head on a flat stone,_ _**hard.** _

_"Don't lie to me Hopps! You speicist bunnies are all the same. I hope you all rot in those stupid Burrows you live in."_

_Gideon stomped away, and Judy was left with a throbbing head, and eyes full of tears._

_"Your daddy doesn't love you either! I bet he doesn't even remember your birthday because of how many of you there are!"_  
_Gideon called out from down the street, continuing on the long, winding road._

_What Judy didn't see, was his eyes welling up with tears. Gideon rubbed his throat; a needle and shock collar strapped around his neck. His neck felt like it was on fire._

**XXX**

Nick rubbed his neck, still stinging in pain from when the bunny had electrocuted him for no reason. His eyes were locked on her, as she was a good distance away; while he was mopping up blood from the sidewalk. The other two were busy loading bodies into bags, loading them into the van, removing their collars, and writing some data about the dead on a clipboard.

**_Name printed on collar_ **

**_I.D._ **

**_Date and Time of Collar Activation (located on digital screen of collar)_ **

**_Cause of death_ **   
**_(Lethal Needle)_**   
**_(Excessive Electrocution)_**   
**_[Circle One]_**   
**__|located on digital screen of collar|__**

**_Final heartrate before death._ **   
**_(located on digital screen of collar)_**

Finnick took care of the papers and detaching the collars, as Dylan loaded the bodies, and Nick cleaned the mess and took their pocket belongings to a trashbin in the van.

When all was said and done, it was as if the deceased predator had never even existed.

Nick Wilde kept his eyes glued to the bunny, who was walking around the park, hands on her utility belt strapped to her hips.

She walked around bodies and gently pushed them with her feet, and occasionally spat on them.

Nick did not appreciate this, or the shock she had given him. His eyes were cold and steely, slicing through the air towards the rabbit, his muzzle peeling back with anger; as she pushed a middle aged wolf with her feet, and kicked it over.

He snarled, and violently pushed his mop against the concrete, the wooden handle creaking.

Finnick took notice of his displeasure. He knew whatever was making Nick mad, needed to be stopped or at least avoided. He used his to fingers to visually trace Nick's bewildered eyes, to what he was looking at, which was...

The rabbit.

Finnick knew what Nick was thinking, and he knew it was dangerous. Nick was dangerous, and it could put them all in danger if he stepped out of line.

Finnick put his clipboard down, and leaped down from the van, jogging over to Nick, his breath visible in the cold, grey air.

The rain had reduced to a light sprinkle. It was like a calm before a storm.

Finnick stopped at Nick, elbowing his waist. Well, he was only as tall as that.

"Nick, dude, I don't know what you're thinking, but you need to _calm the fuck down._ "

Nick gritted his fangs, exposing his gums, muzzle shaking with rage. "She's spitting on the dead ones. Kicking them, Finnick."

Finnick looked over, and saw her spit on a body.

Finnick grimaced, his little heart fueling up in anger. "There's nothing we can do about it Nick. If we hurt her, the ZPD will _kill us,_ if we tell her to stop, she is gonna electrocute us; or worse, again, _**kill**_ _us._ "

Nick's claws dug into the handle.  
His teeth could be heard grinding, crunching. His breathing was rapid and quick, out of place. His strong chest pumped up and down with fury, and his eyes were the size of small dots on an apple.

Finnick rose into a panic. "Nick, don't you go do anything _stupid._ "

The broom handle cracked, and it split just a few inches at the top.

Nick was beyond angry, beyond _fury._ What sort of police officer was this? Kicking around dead bodies and spitting on them? What _social justice_ _ **"system"**_ was this?

"I can't take it Finnick."

Nick threw his mop down and it clacked against the sidewalk loudly. He stomped menacingly down the sidewalk, fists clenching and unclenching, vocal chords shaking and snarling.

He couldn't see straight, everything was so red and fuzzy; it was almost like a crimson static. He was just being controlled by his own mind, under different operations.

_**"Rabbit!"** _

Judy turned around, and her breath hitched. Her chest rose with cold fear, and nose turned to an icy freeze.

Her worst fear had sparked, something she had contracted from the burrows, _something her parents, had taught her._

 _ **Fox = Bad.**_  
_**Angry Fox = Dangerous.**_  
_**Dangerous Fox = Kill it.**_

Judy couldn't move. The fox looked so freakish, so _scary._ His claws were retracted, fangs bared, and huge barrel chest rose like a machine, fueled with fiery anger.

Judy hesitantly pulled out her gun, and the remote to the collars. She held them both.

"Stop where you are! Threatening an officer calls for deadly force _**fox!**_ " The rabbit cracked, body quivering. Her palms rattled, ears were flat against her back, and knees trembled like an unstable bridge.

" **IT'S UNCALLED FOR TO SPIT ON OUR DEAD, RABBIT!** " He roared, pupils almost completely dissapeared, lips fully revealed.

They glared cold, sharp, cruel ivory fangs, dripping with angry, hot saliva.

For a moment, Judy closed her eyes tight, praying the fox would go away... But when she opened her eyes...

She saw Gideon Grey, her childhood tormentor, her _nightmare._ She felt when he pushed her off of her stump, when she hit her head and it bled and bled, oh god it _bled._

_The hospital... The lights.. The machines... The scare._

She blinked them, tears wrapping her eyes like horrified presents.

"Stop!" She pleaded, hands a complete tremor; she stumbled back and tripped over a body, and was greeted with...

...cold dead eyes, glazed over with white. It was a Grey wolf...

...with her spit in the middle of its forehead.

Her body froze in total shock, her body went into a total shutdown. She couldn't move, she just shook slightly.

Trembled, like ice was crawling under her skin.

Her eyes darted above her, where the fox was poised for attack, and Judy held up her arms to her face, _the smell of hot, canine, carrion stench spelled death..._

Then nothing happened. He stood above her, and his claws fell down to his sides, eyes slowly regrowing. His muzzle fell, teeth covered up, and the black, tired rings recolored around his eyes.

He put his paws to his chest, crossed, realizing what he was doing. "Oh, oh my God, I-I'm sorry."

Judy slowly felt her muscles retract, their iron strong tension relaxing.

"I-I- I just saw you doing that to the wolf, and I just got mad, a-and, I got mad! P-please don't report this!" Nick quickly changed personalities, his vision changing from fuzzy red, to a disproportionate blue fog.

The rabbit stared back into his eyes, still widened in fear.

Then they bowed in anger.

"Yeah, _fox?_ "

Nick's eyes dilated again. His ears fell behind his head, and his muscles locked.

Judy held the remote poised at him, and held her thumb over the blue button.

Finnick and Dylan, from a distance, had seen the whole predicament, and once Nick was now in this position, they rushed over as quick as they could.

"Nick you idiot!-"

Judy smashed her thumb against the electrocution button, his collar exploded in a flurry of electricity, and he started screaming. A bright blue radiated over Dylan and Finnick, glazing over Judy as well.

Her hand shook violently with anger, the remote in her paw creaking.

_**"WELL IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT YOU SEE! OR INTO IT WHAT YOU READ!"** _

Nick screamed, his collar seemed to tighten, to stick thousands of needles into his throat. She wouldn't take her finger off the button. He reached his paws up to somehow rip it off, but it just glued them to it, and his screaming stopped; just till his eyes rolled in the back of his head, and his screaming became a gargle.

_**"YOU CAN DO THINGS YOUR OWN WAY! JUST AS LONG AS IT'S HOW I SAY!"** _

Dylan rose with a terrorized mix of fear and anger. "Please stop! You're going to kill him!"

Judy's eyes darted to them both, then she clicked her finger off it, leaving a whining Nick on the floor, steaming.

Finnick rushed over to his fallen body, where he quivered and salivated, his jaw slack. Finnick whined. "Damnit Nick! You fucking idiot! If you die-"

Nick spasmed violently, and he and Dylan held him down. " _ **If you fucking die, Nick..**_ "

Nick stopped moving, and Finnick held his breath.

Then his eyes rolled to the front of his head, and clenched his fists.

"Sorry." He coughed, his voice a screechy whisper.

"Damnit Nick! You are stupid! You could've died!" Finnick lectured, his deep roar booming in his ears. Dylan sighed in relief, exhaling loudly.

"Stupid cunt, you're lucky little miss _police officer,"_ His eyes darted to Judy, sharp and filled with fire. "Didn't electrocute the shit out of you till you died."

Judy instantly regret her actions. Her hand curled up, and looked at the injured fox, who was coughing and still spasming.

Then she took her eyes for a gander across the grey, gloomy park.

Dead bodies were littered around the trees, benches, everywhere. Dead with no reason, most likely.

Just like she had almost done to this fox.

Judy felt ashamed, and bit her lip. She had let her emotions control her, let them get in the way of doing her job. The job she so wanted to do _right,_ _ **make the world a better place for everyone.**_

She couldn't help but think back to her home, Bunnyburrow; where her parents taught her to fear and loathe the predator, _**especially "the fox."**_

She didn't want to believe it. Even though it was Gideon Grey who ruled her fears with an iron grip, she still pitied him... And wanted to help him.

She looked down at the fox. She was saddened. She felt tears burn up her eyes. She hurt someone, even though they had the intention of hurting her... But he had stopped, and even apologized!

 _I failed,_ she thought. She wanted to cry.

"I'm so sorry," Judy held her paw out to the fox, hesitant to help him up. Instead he cowered away from it, wincing as she held up her hand. He curled up in a ball, and his pupils were almost nonexistent, shrunk with fear.  
His breathing was huge and quick, so that his whole body contracted and expanded with each quick breath.

Finnick turned around, growling. "I'm reporting you to your chief. I hope you like fire, because your about to _be it. Fucking_ _ **fired.**_ "

Judy, moved her eyes away, ashamed and afraid.

_This was all her fault, wasn't it?_

_You said you were going to be the fair one in this city Judy,_ she thought. _Now_ _look at you._

She felt the pitter patter of the rain starting to pick up, hitting her head. She saw the fox's friends calming him down, easing his trembling.

Judy slowly felt herself fade away from reality.

_Deep inside, she was just a little bunny who wanted be noticed. Wanted to be seen, to be_ **_loved._ **

_No matter what it took. And she had gone and done this._

_The Judy inside her hurt, while the one on the outside was egotistic, she wanted to be better than just some..._ **_bunny_ ** _._

**_How better is it to hurt people, just because other people say to?_ **

**_There never was justice for anybody in this cruel world._ **


	4. Whine and Wane

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick has a flashback; a bond slowly hints itself between Nick and Judy.

_Nick Wilde stared out his car window, thirteen years old, and had his eyes in complete wonder. He had heard of the wilderness, but this was something amazing, something that... He felt so drawn to._

_It was Nick's first time camping, first time outside the hustle and bustle of a big city, and he_ _**loved it.** _

_"What do you think Nicky?" His mother happily called to him from the passenger seat, her heart warmed at the sight of her son so amazed by the woods._

_He had his muzzle pressed against the window, paws splayed out across them, and his mind was a happy trance. The trees, the fresh air, it just felt_ _**so good!** _

_"It's... It's awesome mom..." Nick was in awe, he had never felt so happy before. The green was everywhere, the sky was blue, the air was cool and sweet with dew..._

_He'd never felt more at peace. His father in the front seat, was just as happy to see his son so joyful about going camping._

_But he was having a hard time focusing. Something had been starting to nag him up to recently, it was weird, probably nothing, just headaches and whatnot... But it was nagging him._

_He shook his head, and kept driving to their campsite. It only took a few more minutes, and then, they stepped out._

_Nick felt the cool, wet soil spread through his feet. It felt so good. He felt so happy._

_With a burst of laughter, he went out running, his cap flying off of his head, the cool breeze rushing in his face, feet cooled by the plush soil._

_He breathed in the sweet air, ran around, smiled, and laughed. Ever since those... Kids at Ranger Scouts muzzled him... Life became kind of blue... Until today, that was._

_Never before was he so happy, felt so free. In fact, a tear or two fell out of his eyes. It just felt so good to be so free and happy._

_There was no containing it! The creek was crystal clear, it was nice and cold... He ran past deep brown, wooden cabins with their cozy orange lanterns, setting everything aglow with their warmth...Everything was so perfect. So beautiful._

_Nick laid down in the soil, and let the cool dirt sink into his veins._

_He sighed, and looked up at the baby blue sky. A world of dreams lay before him, and everything was so perfect._

_He was happy._

_So happy._

_Then, like all memories..._

_Nick woke up from remembering this one_.

**XXX**

A fox's eyes blasted open, wanting to see the forest again, to see his parents happy again, to feel free again...

No.

He was trapped in... A hospital room, with a machine beeping next to him. His neck itched, and his eyes were crusted... with tears.

Tears? When did he cry?

The fox looked around, only to see his body covered with a sea of baby blue blanket... Like the skies at the forest place.

Nick wanted to go back to the forest place. He missed it.

He missed mom and dad.

He missed being happy...

Nick stared blankly at his hands, and had a burning feeling infect his eyes, which soon brought on tears. Tears that fell with no noise, tears that just dampened the blanket before him, and evaporated. Just like old memories.

Memories he tried so hard to hold onto. Like when Mom and Dad were happy. _Like when he was happy._

Nick curled his legs into his chest, and wept. He wept till it hurt. He wept till his head throbbed with sadness and pain. He prayed to God to bring mom back. He prayed to bring dad back. He prayed to bring _happy back._

Soon, Nick had run his tears dry, and he sunk back into his pillow, groaning with pain, sniffing his nose.

The room was dark, and the only light came from thin beams of the window blinds. Rain could be heard thudding against the window; the rain was his only comfort from the sharp, beeping heart monitor...

Nick took his gaze down, and stared at his right arm. Scarred, destroyed, and torn apart by himself. The three X's still freshly inscribed into his arm, the scabs just turning a...

The arm was covered with a gauze. There was something written on it as well, something written in small, neat cursive;

 _I'm really s_ _orry, I didn't know, -Officer Judy Hopps_  
_(966) 909 - 4325_

Nick was confused for a brief second, then it came together. The officer, the collar, the insult... This was her apology. Some cheap use of "I didn't know," because he had hurt himself. She didn't know the real reasons why he did this, yet she had the audacity to exploit that for an apology.

Sick.

Nick wanted to cry some more, but he had run himself dry. This was usually the time when he'd pull out his pins, Exact-O knifes and razors, so he could give himself a reason to cry, so he could vent his pain easier... but it just caused more of it.

So why did he he keep doing it? A young, 22 year old fox, already at the bottom of a downward spiral.

The door clicked, and Nick's ears sprang up, and he jumped for a quick second.

Then he froze, not in fear, or anger, but... just froze.

In the doorway, stood the rabbit police officer, with an orange vest over her chest, bowler hat atop her head, and shy emotion carved into her.

She rubbed her arm, had her head hanging to the floor, and gently kicked her foot around.

She stood there, silent, and so did Nick, waiting for something to happen.

After thirty seconds of waiting, he got annoyed. "Are you going to stand their and look pretty, come talk to me, or leave? I'd prefer if you did the last one."

The rabbit gently shuffled her feet. "I'd just like to say I'm sorry for earlier, and it was all just something I didn't, I just -- didn't know..."

Nick growled distastefully. "You don't know shit. You just look at this," Nick laid off the gauze on his right arm, to which Judy cringed at the sight. "And assume I'm just sad. Well guess what? It's a lot more than just that, carrot fuck."

Judy felt a little pinprick at her heart, and her pride. She had just assumed he was just one of those sad people, but what he said was untrue.

"I know it is," The rabbit mumbled, and brought out a file from behind her back. Nick's expression went blank. She had read his file, which pretty much, considering how much the federal police was involved with his young childhood, custody, orphanages and all... Everything was in _that file._

Judy carefully approached, generating a warning expression from Nick. His claws extracted, and sunk into the cheap hospital mattress.

"Then let's talk about it." Nick relaxed, drained of all expressions. The rabbit was hesitant, but she gulped, and hopped up on the bed next to his legs.

"Where do you want me to start?" Nick asked, head pointed down, staring into the middle of his legs, covered with a stark white hospital sheet.

Judy held her mouth open, swallowed some thoughts, and spoke. "The start of the downwards spiral, I guess."

Judy's ears fell when he heard chuckling buckling out of his chest. It was a pain filled sort of laugh, one of self pity.... Of pure sorrow.

"Right... The downwards spiral.."

Nick looked to the window.  
He swallowed some spit, and sighed lightly, heart beginning to heave with long past memories, still pinned to his heart like parasites.

Judy leaned in closely. She barely knew this fox, and was about to know him more than anyone else he had opened up to... for no real reason. Maybe it was some connection... Maybe it was just a vent for his emotions...

Nick opened his jaws. "My dad begin to develop a tumor, in his brain, that we didn't know about at the time. I was around, six, the doctors said; when it started happening, I think. I'm not so sure.

It started to become more apparent, as time went on, he became much more irritable... more unstable. It was sad seeing my dad just hurt for no reason, hurt and get angry and sometimes hit us."

Nick stared deep into his lap. His eyes were watering. His eyelids were halfway drooping over the green orbs held in his blackened, tired eye sockets.

Judy kept listening.

"It was around this time my mom noticed I was acting strange. I was hallucinating with no reason, I would outbreak, I would just... Be sad for no reason. I had no reason to feel awful... but something was wrong with me. My sense of reality was feeling twisted, lost, and I was dazed and confused..."

Nick looked up at Judy, who's ears fell behind her head, and deep purple eyes stared into his own.

He smacked his thin black lips and continued. "Mom took me to a psychologist one day... and told me I was a schizophrenic. That I had some disease plaguing my mind with illusions and fears that weren't real."

Then Nick chuckled darkly again, tears falling out of closed eyes.

"When we got home, dad had taken mom to the laundry room, and she explained to him about me. I don't know what exactly he did to this day, but I heard her scream, and padded over to look at what had happened."

Judy moved forward, her hearyrace quickened, and her heart continued to crack with each word he omitted. "She was bent over the washing machine, eyes cold and dead, and her skull was bleeding from a single point below her left ear.

I didn't cry or run, or even react, or wasn't even afraid. I just stared, stared into _those cold, dead, steely eyes, beginning to glaze with the milky white sign of death._ "

Nick chuckled again, more of a dark laugh, and more tears full from his tightly clenched eyes. "Dad then told me to stay where I was. I didn't know what was happening around me, everything was cold and dead and bleeding rust.

I couldn't believe how easy it was. Dad had a gun, and put it to his face in front of me, crying and saying sorry."

Nick busted out laughing and sobbing, outright crazy. Judy was on edge, overwhelmed with a rampage of feelings.

"So much blood for such a little hole. Problems do have solutions, and while all are different... his was a bullet to his forehead. And around me, everything died. He fell to the floor, and bled. He bled everywhere."

Nick's laughing turned into more of a demented cry for help. "I've lived a lifetime of fucking things up... and my dad ended his life with one flash from the barrel of a loaded gun.

It was the deepest shade of crimson, all fuzzy and spilling from his head.

I sat there, not moving, for two whole days. Watching the blood rust on their fur, watching it congeal and stink, and their bodies begin to rot."

Judy held her mouth with her paws, tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes.

He laughed darkly again. "I live a lifetime of fucking things up... fucking myself up... I let myself rust like the walls of that old apartment I used to live in with my parents."

Judy was crying, her little body quaking with pity, sadness. Nick gestured to his arm. "That's what this is for. So I would never forget the past. So I would keep the scars I clung to so deeply emotionally, because to forget them would be to forget myself..."

Judy sniffled a little, and breathed out. "I'm so sorry. I had no idea that you had lived like this; I'm so sorry for getting angry and shocking you till you almost died, I just, I-"

Nick shook his head, laughing darkly. "Don't explain a thing. I'd rather listen to why you did this to me."

Judy looked back at him, puzzling his question. "Explain your fears, Rabbit. There's a cause for every effect."

Judy didn't know what to feel, or what to say. "I don't have any... experiences like you had... And I won't even dare to compare mine to yours, but... If you ask, ok."

Judy inhaled deep, and breathed out, eyes locked onto her lap.  
"I lived in a huge family, I was the first baby ever born to my parents, and naturally, as rabbit families go... they get massive. Soon, I was just a forgotten number out of about three hundred siblings.

I had a fox, who I thought was bullying me, but was rather just a scarred boy whom had spoken with me, and I treated badly because I thought he would hurt me..."

Judy gulped, and looked back up into the fox's green eyes.

"...Because he was a fox."

Nick twitched with a little spark of anger.

"What's so bad about a fox?"

Judy feared he was jumping to an unintended assumption. She stumbled with her words. "Nothing is! It's just... As rabbits we're taught to fear foxes and predators, I don't know why... It's just done and I don't know why. Maybe some of it is true, but I didn't want to hurt any predator... But I exploited my feelings on them, and you, only when my emotions make it seem convenient, which is messed up, I know... And I always feel terrible when I do it. That's why I'm here to say sorry, fox."

"Don't call me fox!" He snarled, teeth bared with a sudden burst of anger. Judy only reacted angrier. "Well then don't call me Rabbit, my name is Judy!"

" **WELL THEN DON'T CALL ME FOX, CALL ME NICK!** "

Judy flinched, and hopped away from him, heart pounding in fear.

Nick paused in realization, then groaned unhappily. "I'm sorry, you should go. You have a job to get back to, I'm just a depressed loser in a hospital who's just going to kill himself eventually."

Judy felt actually kind of angry saying that. "Don't say those things, suicide isn't funny, even if you're being serious about it."

Nick broke out laughing, more sad tears spilling from his clenched eyes. "Oh, what's my life worth anyways! I just stay on my room and cut myself and cry myself to sleep everynight... I'm just too far down the downwards spiral already..."

Judy stared deep into his reopened eyes. They were full of hurt.

"No, that just isn't true! If anything..."

Judy hesitated.

"We can share hardships together if you want, be friends."

Nick scoffed in an unegotistic way. "Don't you care more about what people think about you? How would they feel if they saw a rabbit as friends with a fox?"

Judy's gaze turned to stone. "I wouldn't care."

Nick actually felt a little weird. She was being nice to him, something he hadn't received or felt in a while.

"Would you... Actually?" He breathed in disbelief. His heart acutally fluttered with some unclear hope, some dirty scummy hope that seemed to be full of false promises.

A pager interrupted their conversation, and it was from around Judy's belt. She sighed.

"I have to go. And yes I would actually."

Nick's ears perked up, and a light, small smile lit up his face. "Really? You'd want to be my friend?"

Judy giggled a little, and walked to the doorway. "Of course. My phone number's on your gauze if you want to call me."

Nick looked back down to the apology note on his arm.

Before she left, she waved her fingers shyly, whispering "bye."

Nick waved back, and just like that, the bunny had left.

Nick had this weird feeling in his chest, it was... nice... it was...

Nick smiled a little. He felt happy.

Something he hadn't remembered in a long time. Being happy.

He remembered the forest, and went back to sleep.

In his dreams, they were not sad. Instead, they were filled with the rabbit wandering the forest with him.

Nick Wilde slept with a smile on his face.


	5. You're a Waste of a Song

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick warms up to Judy; his voices have other thoughts.

_**YOU ARE NOT.** _

  
_**I am nothing.**_

 

_**YOU ARE NOT.** _

 

_**I am nothing.** _

  
_**YOU ARE NOT.**_

_**I am nothing.** _

 

_**YOU ARE NOT.** _

 

_**Please stop....** _

  
_**...**_

_**EVERYONE'S AFTER YOU.** _

_**Everybody's after me...** _

  
_**EVERYONE'S AFTER YOU.**_

_**Everybody's after me...** _

  
_**EVERYONE'S AFTER YOU.**_

_**Everybody's after me...** _

  
_**EVERYBODY HATES YOU.**_

¤

A room was barred in illumination with a soft, pastel orangish blue; signaling a rising sun behind the city.

The room was painted a gentle angelic white, and innocent, flowing paintings were hung on these walls in old, gold painted frames; attempting to make the room feel more like home. Rather than that, it was just a place where the sick sat and suffered, even possibly died.

...

The pale light was only hitting places and reflecting in bars-- as the blinds did not allow for all of it to pass. It carefully selected the lights they trusted, only allowing that light through. The others were blocked out in shadowy, bent rectangular shapes.

A heartbeat monitor was pricking through the silence with a sharp, electronic beep. The thing took on the rhythm of a beating heart, and a tube attached to the monitor led to...

A fox, sitting upright in a hospital gown. The canines' body rested on a plush, lightly blanketed gatch electric bed. His face was curled in his knees, and rough, reddish arms hugged them. His whole figure shook and shook, his muzzle muttered strange and inaudible whines and growls.

While the room was being lit up softly with the calming blue and orange pastels of a rising sun, the curled ball of fearful energy seemed to be afraid of these lights.

In his mind, things were different, horrifying.

The rectangular shadows from the blinds made monstrous shadows, black, deathly veins that were creeping towards him. The paintings of flowers turned to mean, evil, red eyed mammals. They all stared and laughed.

The light was fire, a bright orange fire that wanted to hurt him. He didn't want to be hurt.

 _"Stay away from me!"_ The fox cried fearfully, pushing himself deeper into the back of the inclined bed. The still came after him, laughing and taunting.

They wanted to hurt him.

The heartbeat monitor turned to ugly screeches, the green, zing-zagging ECG lines turned into a mouth full of pulsating fangs and eyes.

_"Leave me alone!"_

They all laughed, they all pointed, and they all brought out their knives of hate. They each pinned him down and laughed. They laughed and laughed!

Then the first knocked his find out, then the next shoved the knife into his forehead with a squishy wet _crunch_ , and an explosion of memories shot out in front of his eyes.

Mother dying, father hanging by his neck... living throughout the foster home system... _**living in complete fear of nothing else but his**_ _ **own thoughts.**_

_**"STOP IT!"** _

_**WE WILL KILL YOU TO LOVE**_  
_**YOU!**_

 

_**YOU WILL ALWAYS BE OURS!** _

 

_**YOU BELONG TO US!** _

 

_**WE CAN RIP YOU APART!** _

 

_**DON'T EVER TELL US TO LEAVE!** _

 

Nick screamed one last plead, and like that, his quivering eyes looked up, only to see the room had returned to the previous state.

 

The pastel blues were now a soft, tinted blue, the sun just managing to jut one beam out of the heavy clouds.

 

He reached up, and his forehead wasn't bleeding like when one of the _bad things_ had stabbed him with the big silvery knife.

 

His shaking took a while to calm down. After a good fifteen minutes of total silence, the sun had been covered up by the thick clouds once again. 

  
Nick breathed heavily, and then slumped back into the slightly inclined hospital bed.

"Damnit..."

Nick rubbed his eyes one last time, to make sure all the bad things were gone. They were. The room was back to its forced comfort, too soft and gentle for one to not be suspicious of what the comfort was really provided for.

Their was some padding heard, and a door handle clicked, before a tall lioness entered the room. Her fur was neatly combed, and paws were clutching a clip board in her right paw; and a pink kidney dish in her left.

"Mr. Wilde? Since you aren't at home, the hospital is authorizing me to give you your Fluphenazine." She spoke calmly and softly, in that fake, calming nurse voice.

_Just say schizo-fucking-phrenic medicine,_ Nick scowled in his mind, shifting uncomfortably in the bed. _Medicine for the fucking crazy and insane._

 

_**WHO ARE YOU CALLING CRAZY?** _

 

_**Nobody, I'm sorry.** _

 

_**You had better be.** _

 

The lioness put down the pink dish containing a syringe on the nightstand, and pulled out her clipboard.

 

"How are we feeling?"

 

"Fine. Just bubbly and full of energy." Nick rolled his eyes back sarcastically. 

 

The lioness wasn't amused, nor satisfied. "Care to explain what happened Mr. Wilde? You seem a little on edge."

 

"Nothing happened."

 

"Are you sure sir?"

 

"Yes, _and quit calling me sir._ "

 

The lioness frowned.

 

"Well, after this is done, breakfast should be up here in a few minutes. We're running a bit late getting the cooks in this morning."

 

Nick slumped back into his bed. "Whoopee."

 

The lioness heaved her chest, trying her hardest to put up with the fox's stubbornness.

 

"Alright, I'm going to need you to sit up _Nick."_

 

The fox lazily complied, and proceeded to raise up his arm, to let her gain access to his ribs; where his medication was injected.

 

While he felt a prick, then stab of pressure, his eyes wandered over to the gauze covering his paw and forearm.

 

__I'm really s__ _ _orry, I didn't know, -Officer Judy Hopps__  
__(966) 909 - 4325__

 

Nick bit his lip with hesitance, and right as the lioness put the syringe back in the plastic pink kidney bowl, he asked; "Is there a phone I can use?"

 

X X X

 

"So," Judy gently nibbled on her lunchtime sandwich; a can of coke and some baby carrots beside her. She was sitting on the end of Nick's bed, awkwardly avoiding his eyes.

 

"Why'd you call me over?" She asked questioningly, reaching over to take a sip from her coke. Her voice was careful and soft.

 

Nick shrugged. "Maybe I felt like having some company. I don't have any friends other than Finnick and Dylan." The fox then slumped back to a lazy state, taking off the top of the tray to his lunch. It was sitting and steaming in an old, vinyl wood-patterned overbid table, which was losing color-- and the vinyl was missing in some places.

 

Nick found a plate of chicken (they were dumb, unsophisticated animals, and it was acceptable for their meat to be eaten), a side dish piled high with buttered corn kernels, a little plate with a slice of peach cobbler, and two sweet rolls, by which a knife, butter, and some packets of honey were positioned next to.

 

He smiled lightly. This hospital food didn't look that bad actually.

 

"So, would you consider me a friend now?" Judy cocked her brow, setting her half emptied coke can down. She picked up a carrot and munched on the thing, waiting for his response.

 

"I mean, I guess. We overcame some differences in the matter of a day, and... we're having lunch together... so yeah? I guess we're friends." Nick breathed lightly, a little twinge of happiness buried somewhere in his speech. The fox picked up his fork and stabbed it into the chicken. He brought it up to his lips and chewed, savoring each bite of it.

 

Hell, this hospital food tasted better than anything he could afford.

 

Judy looked back to her sandwich, which was placed in her lap carefully. She felt a little warmness glowing in her chest. "Well, thanks, I uhm-- don't have any friends in this city either. Or, anyone to eat lunch with."

 

Nick chuckled a little. "Win--win, I guess?" The fox kept his eyes on the rabbit, who giggled and gently stroked her ear nervously. 

 

"Yeah, heh, thanks."

 

Nick scooped some corn into his fork and swallowed, them began to notice her discomfort. "I figured you'd be the kind of person who'd have a lot friends."

 

Judy frowned. "Why is that?"   
She picked her sandwich back up, but didn't take a bite. The fox, on the other hand, laid his fork back on the overhung table. He stared at his hands a little.

 

"I just figured since you were, you know, a rabbit; which tend to be pretty social creatures-- that you would have lots of friends and stuff." Nick regretfully explained, scratching the back of his scruffy neck. The bunny's eyes bored into his.

 

"Well, you're wrong there. I was born into the typical specist bunny family, but something in me just... compelled me not to be like them. I just didn't like being mean to other people." She started, her eyes gently pushing to the side, then into her lap. "But of course, that side of the family still manages to fight through some of my cracks though. I try my hardest to always push that part away."

 

Nick's expression was understanding and thoughtful. He knew what she meant. To try and strive not to be the things that should not be. He knew what it was like to hate something and not want to become it; no matter how much it was pushed upon you.

 

"Yeah... I understand that, I guess." Nick replied awkwardly, going back to his chicken, finishing it off in a couple more bites.

 

The air was filled with an awkward silence. Nick didn't know why it was awkward, but it just was. Sometimes things just happened and we never have an explanation for them; and just as how they strangely became friends of a sort, the air was filled with an odd awkwardness.

 

"Now be honest Nick, did you actually just invite me over to have company? Or did something happen?" She asked daringly, eyes filled with suspicion. 

 

_Nick locked up, and gulped down a lump in his throat._

 

_Just tell her you had an episode, it's not that hard. Maybe talking to her about these things will make you feel better._

 

**_DON'T TELL_**  
**_HER_**  
**_ANYTHING._**

 

**_No, I'm tired of you_**  
**_controlling me,_**  
**_my thoughts, and_**  
**_emotions!_**

 

**_Stupid fox,_**  
**_these are your thoughts,_**  
**_And nobody else's._**  
**_Just a stupid,_**  
**_Schizophrenic,_**  
**_Untrustworthy FOX._**

 

**_Too bad._**  
**_Maybe this will_**  
**_help break my shell._**  
**_You go on ahead_**  
**_and fuck off._**

 

Nick shook his own thoughts out of his head, the ones he believed were real, but knew they weren't. It was all just in his head.

 

_Nick proceeded to tell Judy about the schizophrenic episode he had earlier that morning, and she listened, eyes and expression full of care and warmth._

 

_She was so easy to talk to, he thought; by God she was so easy to talk to._

 

_Nick felt happy._

 

_Happy...._

 

_Happy again._

 

_Then she left, to go back to work._

 

_Nick looked at his gauze, and smiled at it._

 

_Once he was out of here, he was going to make sure he was around her more._

 

**_A lot more._ **

 


	6. ...You're a Waste of My Lungs!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick attracts a crowd; not necessarily a good one.

The unnoticed morning sun of a city began to rise, hidden behind a thick blanket of grey, cold clouds.

The city once again, was shadowed in deep blue rain, slathering the world below in icy sharp pricks. Running among the streets being bombarded by the needles of rain, was a rowdy group of teenagers, laughing wildly and whooping.

There was a rhino, a zebra, and then the leader of them all; an evilly grinning jack rabbit. In his right paw, was a remote, with the words ZPD Collar Trigger painted on it.

These remotes were stolen and bootlegged so much, anyone and their mother's mother could go out and buy one. This was why the death rates of predators were so high; prey just loved to torment, hell, sometimes killed predators.

Usually, a person would just torment a said predator with the shock button; but it wasn't unusual for a group of kids to get their sick kicks by killing said predator with the Lethal Needle button.

What was funny was that the ZPD had no idea about this, even after the thirty years the city started introducing the collars.

This group of teenagers were chasing a poor grizzly bear, twenty four years old; and was panting with desperate breaths.

"Here big dumb grizzly!" The jack rabbit cooed mockingly, sprinting out after the large mass of terrified brown fur.

"Please stop!" He cried out in his deep voice, his lungs blistering with the razor sharp cold air invading them. He turned a street, down to an alleyway; but in some twist of sad fate, his foot got caught in a curb storm grate, and down his ankle snapped like a pathetic little toothpick.

His foot got so far lodged in, when his ankle snapped, he thrust forward, and his skull connected with the pavement in an ugly, white hot crack.

He groaned, rain seeped into his already soaked fur, and accepted defeat. The heavy padding of the animals grew closer, till he felt the vibrations of them dancing all around him.

"Check this out guys! We got ourselves a fatty this time!"

The bear moaned with pain, the pounding in his skull was enough, and then the last thing the poor bear felt was a white hot needle sinking into his neck.

XXX

Nick Wilde was once again awake in the hospital, calmly humming some bassline to a song he remembered from his childhood.

But that was good, Nick thought.

He wasn't happy, not at peace, not sad, but calm. Which, was something he hadn't felt in forever.

Even as the rain continued to heavily knock on his window like a creeping death, Nick just tapped his fingers against his chest and hummed.

The dim blue light from the window was the only real source of light, and the rain on the window casted their faint, runny shadows across everything.

The scent of rain was also calming. It was so sweet and blue, it reminded him of the forest from his childhood... the forest.

He wanted to go back to the forest. Yes, he forest. Oh by God yes, he was going to go back one of these days.

Nick lightly smiled, thinking of visiting the forest.

But, while the memory was nice, he had... something else on his mind.

Like some twist of bittersweet destiny, he had met that rabbit police officer. She had come into his world like, well, quite literally a bolt of electricity. It was a scary, even quite hateful introduction if anything. His quarrel of angry words and twisting emotions from when he had first started talking to her, had blossomed into a growing friendship. Something that was still confusing to Nick.

He didn't know how he had started to fall for her sweet personality behind the tough facade and fake specist attitude. She was understanding and liked to listen, listen to him, and that made him happy.

"Even the most beautiful flowers can grow out of the smelliest piles of shit," Nick randomly blurted out in a calm, but jovial tone.

There was the click of a doorknob, and his ears and eyes flicked to the corner of the room, where the nurse stepped in.

"Mr. Wi-- I mean, Nick, you're able to leave now. There appears to be somebody here to pick you up."

Nick cocked his brow. "Somebody's here to pick me up?"

The nurse breathed with frustration, just wanting to get the stubborn fox out of her hospital. "Yes." The lioness groaned through gritted teeth.

Nick was confused again. He hadn't called anyone to pick him up, and he hadn't called Finnick or Dylan that he was being released.

"Who is it?" Nick asked cautiously, swinging his furry legs over the side of the gatch bed.

The lioness lost it. "Jesus, so many questions! It's a bunny, can you please change and leave?" She pleaded, annoyed to the point of actual anger.

Nick chuckled slyly.

"Maybe I'll stay here a little longer on that note."

The lioness growled.

Nick chuckled.

XXX

"So..."

Nick Wilde asked, rubbing his knuckles together. His eyes were fixated on the greasy artificial-meat hamburger Judy had bought for him.

A fly buzzed on it, and it shone like the grease covering the bun; the lazy and grimy fluorescent lights above casting a shine onto the grease.

Notheless, it was food, and while it looked unappetizing, he certainly was going to eat it; hell, it tasted good, and that's all that mattered.

"Yes?" The rabbit looked up, munching away at a salad she had bought for herself, being careful not to spill any ranch on her uniform.

"Don't you have to be on patrol or something?" Nick asked, with mixed emotions obvious in his tone. He was just feeling strange.

Judy shook her head, her eyes darting to the corners of their sockets in shame. "The chief put me on a month of parking duty because Finnick reported me for disorderly conduct and assaulting a citizen. I'm lucky I didn't get fired."

"Oh," Nick said blankly, before slowly grabbing the food Judy bought with two paws, and took a large bite out of it. His eyes rolled in the back of his head, and he chewed with satisfaction. He hadn't eaten anything beside cup noodles and microwavable food for the past eight years. Now this wasn't any healthier, but it certainly did taste better.

Nick's eyes reopened, and turned to the bunny in a concealed appreciation. "Thanks for this Judy. I-, uh, really mean it. Nobody's been this nice to me in years."

The bunny gave a light chuckle and smirk, not looking at him in the eyes. "No problem. I just feel bad for doing what I did to you."

Nick didn't know why, but that triggered a little train of thought to start chugging away in his mind. Then she just wants to do this because she thinks it will justify her actions? Not because she actually cares?

It's what I've been trying to  
tell you, she's just trying to  
justify what she did to you.

What if we're wrong?  
She's so nice to me....

Will you get these stupid  
illusions out of your head?  
NOBODY CARES ABOUT YOU.  
When was I ever wrong?

I-I... I just wanted to  
think that she actually  
started to care.

Well, dumbass,  
SHE HATES YOU.

Nick growled a little, his eyes locked down into his lap. His paws slammed his burger back into the greasy wax paper, and Judy's went up to follow his now rising body. When he was on two feet, he towered above her sitting body.

"So then you don't care? You just want to try and justify your actions? You don't wanna feel like the bad guy, so you just play with my mind like some toy?" Nick snarled, gaining the turning of heads from multiple mammals in the fast food establishment.

Judy was confused for a second. She had never told him th-- oh, she was stupid! She had worded what she meant to say in the wrong way, he probably thought she was just trying to play nice guy!

"Nick, no, you don't understand-"

Nick lashed out, roaring with fury, teeth bared and lips completely peeled back. "I THINK I PERFECTLY UNDERSTAND!"

The crowd in the restaurant grew restless. Their faces dimmed with dead emotions, dead eyes.

"That fox is going to kill her!"

The place went silent for a few seconds more, and Nick was left frozen in fear. A fly buzzed by around his head, and the grimy flouresent lights above flickered.

Then they rushed to tackle him, in which Nick began to frantically attempt to kick them off. Once they held him down, Judy was left trying to break through the large crowd and get to him.

"Everyone! He wasn't going to hurt me!" She tried yelling at her loudest, but it wasn't audible over the strangling and entrapment of Nick.

"What should we do with him?" Somebody cried out, and the crowd fell silent. Judy and Nick stayed silent, with the hope the group would calm down.

His neck was wrapped in a grip from a rhino, arms held back by a zebra and a buffalo. Other animals had pinned down his legs and were occasionally bringing their fists down to his face.

He had just got out of the hospital, and it was beginning to look like he needed to go back already.

Then a voice rung out.

"Lynch him!"

Nick's eyes popped out of his skull. A cold sweat ran down the side of his head, and his back stiffened with freezing cold fear.  
He made an unintelligent groan, and his brows curved down with sick fear.

His chest began to heave, and he felt out of breath. He turned to Judy for help, but she was blocked out by the wall of larger animals pinning him down.

The group started to chant in agreement; and then like someone was ready for this, a rope was wrapped around his neck, and was tied sloppily. They chanted and jeered, and whooped excitedly. Nick only yelled out in horror, trying to kick away.

"Lynch him!" The crowd started chanting, and began to roughly carry him outside, where a large oak tree was positioned by a road.

Nick started to scream for them to stop, he was screaming, fucking screaming, they were going to hang him!

Judy had followed the group outside, and her heart beat with some fearful, frantic feeling. Her heart beat in a fearful way that hadn't beat since Gideon Grey had first beat the living shit out of her for a measly quarter at school.

Her throat crackled, and eyes welled up with tears. She wasn't ready to see him crying, then suddenly lurched up by the neck, have one last scream, and hang dead.

No no no no no no, Her head spinned, hear hands grew cold and clammy, as she saw the group throw the other end of the rope over the tree.

Judy clenched her fists, and a few tears fell out of her eyes. She wasn't going to sit by and let things like this happen anymore.

She recomposed herself, and at the top of her lungs, screamed

"STOP!"

The crowd turned their heads, as did Nick, who's eyes were winced, tears violently dragged out onto his rough fur.

Judy panted, the scream taking her wind. "By law ordinance 13.42 B of citizen justice and justified violence; lynching has been banned and outlawed since 1956, and if you all don't put him down, you're all going to be arrested and tried for murder!"

Then there was a silence, a brief grumble of simple conversation.

"But he tried to hurt you!" Somebody called out, and the rest of the group nodded and mumbled in agreement.

Judy clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. She was tired of people acting this way. By God, it had rubbed off on her for a little while, and that was not going to happen again.

"Are your brains gelatin? Are you all stupid? Just because he gets mad doesn't mean he's going to kill people! Leave!"

There was another pause of silence; the blow of cold wind in the grey sky, and the group broke up, throwing Nick on the grass; walking back into the restaurant.

He was breathing frantically, eyes were filled with tears, and he hugged his knees.

The rope was still tied to his neck, resembling a second collar now, rather than a noose.

Judy padded over the grass, and sat under the oak tree next to him. Her chest was still heaving, and the lungs in her body were heavy.

Nick looked over to her, and tackled her down with a hug.   
"Thankyouthankyouthankyou--"   
He cried, and pulled his head under her neck, sobbing loudly.

He cried sorries, he cried he wouldn't do that again, he cried that he overreacted, he cried.

Judy just held him and listened as to what he had to yell with tears. She should've been out on duty, but something compelled her to stay there, as the oak tree and bushes around it hid them from anyone else as she sat and he cried into her neck.

Judy started to shush him, and a light pink blush appeared on the tips of her ears and on her cheeks when she unconsciously hugged back.

"Nick," she whispered affectionately, bringing his head up, so that they met eye to eye. Her paws wrapped around the noose still tied around his neck, and with his compliance, she removed it.

After some more conversation, Nick fell asleep in her lap, and Judy didn't have a problem with it; she actually embraced it.

In fact, she kind of liked it.

It felt wrong but there was this little spark in it that felt good about it.

She liked feeling his heavy breathing, his occasional shift, and how warm his fur was.

The only thing that bothered her was the occasional green blink of his collar.

After a while, she eventually woke him up, and let him sleep in the back of her cruiser, while she went around on duty.

Every so often, she glanced in the dashboard mirror back at Nick.

 


	7. Rhinoceros

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick's nerves are settled; a mounting curiosity begins to build on Judy's case.

**Wake up.**

I just started to get up, and you're already pestering me?

**She took you to her house.**   
**She is plotting something.**

Why are you assuming things always?

**Tsk Tsk, remember,**   
**I am you.**

One of these days I'm going  
to kill myself just so I can  
see and hear you suffer.

**Remember, you're making**   
**all this up in your head.**

But you're so real.

**But I'm just you,**   
**a result of your schizophrenic**   
**mental conditions.**

Yet you're a completely different person. I've made something that pisses me off and I hate but I can't be without you. I don't understand why I made you, or why I made you so real.

**Ah, Nick, that's the beauty of schizophrenia. You don't understand--**

_**ANYTHING**_.

_**XXX** _

Nick's eyes fluttered open, to see he was laying on a rough, scratchy green couch. His mouth felt dry, and his back itched from the itchy fabric.

Once the fox's brain was unfuzzed, his eyes made out where he was; but then they were confused. This wasn't his home, nor was it any other he had seen.

There was only one window on the far end, and it brought in the same, deep blue light he saw at his own apartment; yet it wasn't his.

Strange smells and unfamiliar objects were strewn across the room, and in the corner... was the rabbit he recognized as Judy, sleeping softly in a creaky old bed.

Heat began to flush to his cheeks, as he remembered he had fallen asleep in her lap under the big oak tree... after that lynch mob almost hung him dead for all to see. She had taken him home, and laid him down... and changed him into some really loose clothes that weren't his.

That meant she had to have... undressed him. Dozens if odd and uncomfortable thoughts crossed his mind, heating his cheeks up beyond hot.

Sure, he was greatful, but also... felt odd. Unsettled was just a little part of it.

The fox shifted, so that while his head was upside down; his emerald green orbs stared to the left at the sleeping rabbit. He was comfortable in this position now.

Nick's eyes soon began to fall again, the overwhelming power of cold, fuzzy sleep washing his consciousness away....

**_X X X_ **

**_NICK, YOU FOOL._ **   
**_SHE'S LED YOU INTO HER TRAP._ **   
**_HAVEN'T I SEEN YOU HERE BEFORE? THERE AREN'T ANY HEROES HERE._ **

_Can't you go and slither somewhere else?_

_**OH NICK, SHE'S GOING TO PLAY YOU.** _   
_**SHE'S A SERPENT.** _

_Maybe I trust this serpent._   
_I don't see her crawling for anything._

**_DON'T GO LOOKING FOR SNAKES, YOU MIGHT FIND THEM._ **

_Well then, she isn't a snake, she's like a light then._

**_SHE'S A SUN, DON'T TURN YOUR EYES TO HER, YOU'LL BLIND THEM._ **

_I think she's helping me..._   
_I've been in this position,_   
_but I think it might_   
_work this time._

**_HAVEN'T  I SEEN YOU HERE BEFORE?_ **

_Yes..._

**_ HAVEN'T YOUR HEROES DISAPPEARED? _ **

**_ XXX _ **

Nick woke up once more, this time, along side a huge gasp for air, and his heart pounding in pain.

His thoughts had invaded his dreams again, with their deceiving, yet trustworthy words.

The fox sat up, rubbed his eyes, and realized that the rabbit was asleep.

An alarm clock next to her bed read the time in stark, red numbers,  _6:22_  PM,  _Sunday._

Nick sighed, and pushed himself off of the couch, stretching loudly. His tongue lolled out of his mouth as he pushed his arms behind his head, and pulled his back out. After said stretching was done, the fox doubled over to a slouch, and observed the room with more detailed observations.

The walls were an old, carved wood; heavy and black-ish brown. There was a second little room next to the foot of her messy bed, which he assumed was the bathroom.

The couch was lined up against the left wall, and window was on the far end; the only source of natural, deep blue light.

There was a dresser filled with her clothes and a mirror at the opposite end of the couch, which had a grimy mirror on top, stacked with assorted trinkets and police things.

It was very compact and cramped, but, it was what the rabbit called home.

Nick groaned, and kicked his legs over the side of her couch. He stood up, stretched his back with a satisfying  _pop,_ and was left alone, awake.

It was fairly dark in the room, as the dark, blue air was a barrier to the sun behind the clouds. So when the fox made the slightest couple of steps, he found his hip slam into the corner of a little table. The fox gritted his teeth, and retracted his claws in annoyance. He dug and dragged them into the wooden table for some kind of stupid revenge towards an inanimate object.

As if the slight bump had made a spark, a bright fire blinded Nick, and his recently awoken, tender eyes closed.

He cursed under his breath, and after reopening them slowly, he found a laptop open; probably gestured awake as roughly as Nick had waken.

What he found on the screen put his eyes in a squint.

In the search bar on the tab the page currently opened, read;

**_Wrongful Predator Collar Triggers_ **

His mind was intrigued, curiosity peaked. His paws was tempted to see the next tab.

He retracted it. It wasn't his property, and it wasn't his business to be snooping through her computer.

The fox bit his lip lightly, a sharp canine hanging out of his bottom lip.

 _A little clicky clicky wouldn't hurt anyone,_  He thought, and put his paw to the pad. The cursor on the screen came to life, quickly scurrying to the next tab.

He tapped his finger, and was greeted with a fact page.

His eyes scrolled over it.

**Over 1000 predators are killed nationwide daily due to collar activation on average; around 900 are wrongful activation.**

_Bunny's doing her research,_ Nick concluded, and turned his head to make sure she was asleep.

Just like the city, the rabbit was sleeping soundly; bundled up in blankets and her pajamas.

She had been looking all this up, and now Nick was not to be stopped looking through her computer searches.

His paw moved the cursor to the next tab, which read:

_Mental illnesses in predators on the rise; collars and traumatic events a pressing cause -- Doctors from Hetsfield University claim._

His eyes scrolled through the contents quickly, finding the article to be extremely misleading by the source that wrote it. They tried to water down the research said doctor was doing.

It also said his death was 'mysteriously' reported a few days after releasing his research to news outlets.

Nick grumbled.

His paw clicked to the next tab.

On the search bar,

_Schizophrenia_

The ears on the back of his head fell. His expression softened.

She was looking into his condition? Did she... care? No, she was... well... she did care, didn't she?

A quick glance of his eyes noticed a pen and pad down besides the computer; which held some scribbles she had written, only they weren't scribbles.

They were notes.

His file filled with medical records and information on his parents, introduction to the orphanage system,  _everything._

His heart felt pricked by needles when he realized they were notes about him.

His heart began to heave when he saw how much she had written.

_**Fluphenazine- drug nick takes--** _   
_**regulates mental hormone instabilities. he takes it in his left arm, underneath muscle.** _

**_nick's triggers and psychological workings_**  -  ** _anything relating to his parents, prey cruelty, guns, extreme events of yelling, blood--_**

Nick, if anything, felt violated. She was going through his life, she was playing with it on paper.

But... she wasn't doing it to  _violate, she was_ ** _doing it because_** ** _she cared._**

Nick swallowed the few drops of anger spilling out of his heart, and continued to read.

**_while very angry and hostile towards prey at moments--_ **

Nick paused and heaved at the next bit of words.

- ** _-_** ** _he greatly fears them more than anything in his life._**

While Nick didn't want to believe it, the fox sighed with an edge in his throat, and his eyes and nose burning.

**_Nick's parents--_ **

The fox's eyes exploded and heart raced, they skipped past the description of mommy and daddy, and how they died.

He couldn't bare to try and remember it. The events and thoughts tried to push past his shield, to which he frantically held up.

His breathing hitched. His heart paced quickly, and his vision blurred with tears starting to glaze them over.

His emerald eyes darted over to the rabbit, who shifted a little in her bed, softly breathing.

The battle in his mind calmed, and the sparks calmed to a quiet, burning coal, then back to a sort of forced tranquility.

His eyes darted from the paper back to the screen, his heart heavy with some unnamed feeling.

_**How to care for schizo--** _

Nick grew even more restless, and skipped past the tab, his expression weakening and falling under sorrow and some god awful franticness.

_**Petition for predator collar removal** _

Nick felt crushed by some force that he felt, perhaps it was the fact that he was  _ **feeling**_ again, that some little bunny was worrying and caring about him so much.

His eyes burned down to the notes again.

_**Get Nick some breakfast tomorrow; take him to lunch, order dinner. invite him to stay a little, perhaps.** _

Nick groaned, and let his head slam into his palms, trying to bury his unfallen tears into his hands.

His heart began to beat a bit harder, and his head was clouded with a plague of different emotions and thoughts.

God, he was  _feeling_  and it felt like a truck had slammed into his chest. Nobody had cared after mom and dad had been taken from him, and it was like starting a rusty engine again.

"Stupid bunnies, you can always count on them to make you cry," He chuckled, wiping a tear from the bottom of his cheek. The fox turned his head to see the bunny still asleep, and a smile came to his face, one that was curved at the edges, and his eyes were pink and puffy with tears, and he kept wiping them and laughing quietly at himself.

His heart felt greatful and warm, and his eyes burned with tears that just so happened to only make him laugh quietly even more.

His paw shut the computer, not caring to explore the other tabs.

He sniffed away some more tears, and he heaved his chest. For the final time, he darted back to the pad of paper, where his eyes locked onto words that were circled with big, bold letters--

_**Take nick to vendetta forest** _   
_**\- 400 miles away** _   
_**\- around $2000 round trip incl. gas, food, misc, etc..** _

Nick's heart seemed to have melted in its place, and the water works totally took off, and he found himself laughing a little louder, sniffing up his tears until he just didn't care if they fell.

By God, she said she would take him to the forest! The happy place, where mom and dad...

Mom and dad...

Rather than morph into a sad, depressing thought of his parents, small, little dumb things from his childhood seemed to be brought back.

Rubbing his muddy paws on the side of the house to make art (mom was not happy about that),  
When dad would grill at the park, and the whole place was alive with wonderful smells, and he would eat and eat and eat and laugh and play with the other kids....

He cried with some form of shiny golden joy, his paws rubbing his eyes; from a distance it looked like he was bawling like he had watched somebody die.

Nick just felt greatful, happy that this little bunny cared and wanted to help him and be with him.

When she woke up, he was going to stay by her side all he could.

_He was starting to love this rabbit._

_**X X X** _

Judy Hopps' eyes fluttered open, and walk greeted with a warm sensation curled up against her stomach.

Her face was lit on fire to see that Nick had curled up in a ball on her bed, and fallen asleep again. It was his tail that, while curled around himself, also had pressed into her stomach.

Her eyes were dark, heavy, and tired still. Today was her day off, and she was going to enjoy it as much as she could....

..with Nick of course.

Judy looked over to the table which she left last night's research, and the countless hours she spent becoming enveloped in his world.

He had no heroes, nobody seemed to love him, his friends were just  _people that he was forced to see,_ and it was completely heartbreaking and eyeopening to learn all about him.

Today, was going to be an interesting day, as she had plans to do things with Nick.


	8. Carpe Diem, Motherfucker

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Flashbacks galore and flashbacks with gore.  
> Oh my.

_**Is the wittle foxxxy woxxxy** _   
_**falling in wove with the** _   
_**wittle bunny?** _

_Shut up._

_**Aww, you wove the wittle** _   
_**bunny rabbit?** _

_Stop it, please stop it._

_You're pissing me off._

_**Remember, Nick, I Am--** _

_Yes, I get it, you're me!_

**_Are you raising your voice_ **   
**_at me? I thought you were_ **   
**_afraid of me!_ **

_Then I'm afraid of myself!_   
_Fuck you! I'm tired of you_   
_controlling my mind!_

**_NO! YOU LISTEN,_ **   
**_YOU ARE DOING THIS TO YOURSELF YOU STUPID FUCKWIT! YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO STOP IT EITHER,_ **   
**_AND THAT BUNNY IS NEVER GOING TO LOVE YOU. I AM YOU, YOU ARE ME._ **

**_YOU WOULDN'T LIE TO YOURSELF, WOULD YOU?_ **

_No! You are me but,_   
_I'm not yo-- AGH! This is_   
_so confusing! I hate you!_   
_This is my time now!_

_**NICK, YOU THREW AWAY** _   
_**YOUR TIME! YOU STUPID MUTT! THAT RABBIT IS** _   
_**GOING TO FUCK YOU OVER** _   
_**AND YOU'RE GOING TO REGRET BATTING AN EYE TO HER!** _

_W-...w-..w-we'll see about that._

_**Get out of her trap while you can. Live what you have left.** _

_**..** _ _but this isn't living..._

_**ςαяρє ∂ιєм.** _

**_XXX_ **

"Nick, wake up."

A light voice was heard, and it ushered the sleepy fox out of his forceful, demanding conversation with  _him._

Nick hiccuped. "Uh?..." His eyes observed to see that hers were looking down upon his; she was dressed in a stark white t-shirt, CPO coat half zipped up underneath her breasts, jeans, and her purse slung over her shoulder.

The fox was confused, his early morning head still fuzzy with the fog of sleep.

"No uniform?" Nick grogged, gently sitting up, and cracking his back. Judy shook her head quietly, shoving her hands in her coat pockets.

"It's a Sunday. I have Sunday's off since I'm stuck on parking duty." She sighed, then darted her eyes back to him happily.

"But I have you! You would be fine going with me, right? To breakfast, lunch, and... Would you be okay with that?" She blushed, gently rubbing her arm, ears flat behind her head.

Nick stared deep into her eyes again, and his cheeks gently lit up as well. The fox gently sat up, and stretched the fuzzy feeling muscles along his back till they were bright and wide awake.

Judy stared at his chest as it puffed out. "Course I'd be okay with it." The fox replied, and gently stood up beside her. Judy's eyes stayed locked with his.

Outside, the rain began to fall in heavy battery's of thundering power.

**X X X**

Nick's chin was resting on the windowsill of Judy's little blue sedan, staring out at the billowing rain. His ears were soothed by the gentle pitter patter of the cold drops of water against the car, and the hum of the sedan's engine.

Judy gently pushed her eyes over to observe Nick, who was staring glumly out at the passing cityscape. The rain was seeming to gently push a depressing atmosphere into Nick's very being. Judy pulled into the parking lot of a local cafe, and turned the car off, the gentle humming of the engine dying with desperate breaths. Her breathing was frustrated, but she let it out in a heavy huff.

"What's wrong Nick?" She breathed, arms folded into her chest, sinking into the seat of her car. The rain filled up the silence that painted the two, the pitter patter basking their world into an even deeper grey. The fox's eyes were glued to his lap. His chest rose and fell, before his eyes locked on hers. The emerald orbs in his eye sockets were glazed over with hot tears, but they refused to fall. His expression was pulled back, full of some heavy sadness.

His muzzle moved.

"I looked over your notes you were writing last night Judy." Nick's eyes darted away from hers in some sort of submission, the ears falling flat atop his head. Everything about him reeked self restraint. Judy's eyes were locked on his expression. They quickly were filled with concern.

"Yeah... about those--"

"Thank you. Thank you  _so_ _ **much.**_ "

Judy's breath was stolen out of her lungs. Nick started to softly laugh at himself, turning away from her, tears starting to fall from his eyes. His chest burned with a warmth he hadn't felt in years. "I must look really dumb," The fox gently used his wrists to wipe the tears out of his eyes. His nose burned.

"To think a little bunny could make me happy again," He breathed, his eyes glued to the roof of her car now. They leaked with the hot, salty escape of emotions known as tears. "I can't tell you how much I appreciate you for this Judy."

The bunny felt her face gently heat up from his emptying of emotions. She couldn't help but feel her whole body warm up from his gratitude. Yet, deep inside, the rabbit was a lost little puppy to her own emotions. She had no idea what was compelling her to begin literally doing everything in her power to help his life be better than what it was. Sure, at the start it was because she was sorry for letting her rage explode on the fox, for letting it all out for her own selfish gain.

But now... now it was much more than that.

What had compelled her to go as far as to study every available bit of his life? What had compelled her to learn from the notes his psychologist from his youth; to learn about his emotional attachment to the said forest?  _ **Why?**_

"I-..."

Judy tried to form words, but only found herself staring deep into his emerald green eyes. They were so full of pain and depression, but there were hints of a once bubbly, happy, childish fox. She wanted to bring out those glints of a fox with his sanity back, those glints of pureness, of forgotten joys forth.

"I-I... Y-y..Y-you're welcome," Judy nervously brushed her ears; her cheeks lighting up red and flustered. "I guess I-I... I just uh,"

Nick stared deep into her eyes.

"I..."

Nick's ears slowly lifted up.

"I-I-... I guess we should go inside now."

_**XXX** _

_"Papa, sing me the song!" A very young Nick Wilde bubbled, sitting next to his father on a log. His fur was gently brushed by the soft, tender wind, and fur illuminated b the sun hitting the creek in front of them. It was day two of their camping trip, and Nick was savoring every second of the beautiful scenery._

_Nick's father chuckled heartily, his deep baritone voice warm with honey. "Momma doesn't like the song, she says it's too inappropriate for you." His deep orange eyes fell upon his son's bright green orbs, that were staring so affectionately at his father's._

_"Please papa?"_

_"Are you sure you're old enough?"_

_"Yes papa, oh yes I'm old enough!"_

_His father smirked, and laid his son down flat against the log, so that his eyes were glued to the beautiful, clear skies. Nick breathed in deeply, and heard his father's vocal chords gently grumble, before they sung._

  
_"Hit dirt,_

_Shake Tree,_

_Split Sky,_

_Part Sea,_

_Strip Smile,_

_Lose Cool,_

_Bleed the day and break the rule,_

_Live, win,_

_Dare, fail,_

_Eat the dirt and bite the nail."_

_Nick's eyes closed, envisioning the deep, dark, grey soundscape papa's voice sung of, a world that would be so melancholy to live in._

_Nick would never live in that world, would he?_

_His father paused for a short second, before his expression went to that of restraint, that of holding back many rushed emotions that attempted to break his barriers. His voice picked back up the lonely sing-song tone he used._

_"Then make me miss you..."_

_His eyes turned to the sky, as did his son's._

_"Then make me miss you..."_

_Nick couldn't help but feel a little prick at his young heart. Something about the song latched deep into it, but he knew the sad thing daddy was singing about would never happen to him._

_Right?_

_"So wash your face away with dirt,_

_It don't feel good till it hurts,_

_So take this world and shake it,_

_Come squeeze and suck the day..."_

_His eyes turned to his son, and a single tear fell onto his fur, dampening it with a heavy foreboding sadness._

_"_ _**Come Carpe Diem Baby.** _ _"_

_**XXX** _

_A twenty year old Nick Wilde stared at a piece of paper with words scraggled on it; in his freakish, messy handwriting. He was sitting at the desk of his newly rented apartment, at which the desk featured a single pen, a picture of his mother and father, a blood crusted razor and Exact-O knife, and the piece of paper._

_The paper had the lyrics to the song papa had sung him years ago at the happy place; at the forest._

_His brows wrinkled in a jealous anger. He was jealous of the person he once was, jealous of the happy times he used to have, with mommy and daddy, who were still alive at the time._

_The fox's eyes darted to the Exact-O knife. With a quick and angry swipe, he held the handle in his hand, and plunged the blade deep into his arm, the blood beginning to flow like floodwater._

_He picked up the pen with his right paw, and drilled it in the long bloody slit, before he pulled it out._

_He slammed the pen to the paper, using his own blood as ink. He wrote furiously and quick, his tears falling into his fur like hot rain._

_His lips split apart, and his teeth were bared with anger as his paw moved furiously across the paper, while his left arm continued to bleed profusely._

_Nick's paw ceased, and the pen dribbled on the paper, before he let his shaky paw down, and sunk into his chair._

_His blood inscribed onto the paper; completing the song his father had sung with his own crimson words._

_"Draw Lead,_   
_Piss wine,_   
_Sink teeth,_   
_All mine,_

_Stoke fire,_   
_Break neck,_   
_Suffer through this,_   
_Cheat on death,_

_Hug the curve,_   
_Lose the time,_   
_Tear the map,_   
_And shoot the sign._

_**Then make me miss you.** _   
_**Then make me miss you.** _

**_So wash your face away with dirt,_ **   
**_It don't feel good until it hurts,_ **

**_So take this world and shake it,_ **

**_COME TAKE MY LIFE AWAY,_ **

**_COME CARPE DIEM BABY._ **

**XXX**

"That's a dangerous idea Judy." Nick took another forkful of his scrambled egg, his eyes deadlocked with hers.

Judy's notepad laid before her, as well as the laptop she had taken with her. Her reading glasses were rimmed around her eyes, and she gently laid them down beside her.

"You do know that this isn't something for the city, this is something for the government; a case to show that collars aren't necessary and should be removed, are you nuts?" Nick gulped down a bit of orange juice, and proceeded to use his paws to articulate his concerned words.

A a wolf cub and his mother near by overheard their conversation. The little boy looked at Nick's left arm, which was exposed and showed his odd scars and decoloration of the fur where the slashes used to be.

"Momma, look at the fox's arm," The child whispered, to which the mother, a large brown timber wolf, pulled her son's curious head away.

"Son, don't bother him--" She was embarrassed, as she knew very well what the scars were probably from. Her head turned to Nick, in which she mouthed a quick sorry.

Nick gently nodded, and turned to Judy again. He covered his arm by pulling his sleeves again. If his fur wasn't red, it would be easy to spot his flustered and embarrassed figure.

"Jesus, I need to be more careful about that," He sighed, and bowed his heavy head down on the table.

Judy breathed in, and her eyes quickly took a gander to outside, where the rain continued to punish the city in heavy sheets.

She turned back to Nick. The rabbit used her paw to shut her laptop, and put one on his paw, which was laid in the center of the table.

Those green eyes met with hers, and her breath was stolen for a second.

"About taking you to the forest--"


	9. Chutes and Ladders

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick begins to realize the voice in his head has some rather antagonizing aspects. About time.

_What did I tell you, bastard!_   
_She does care! Not only did she take me to to breakfast, lunch, AND dinner; and no only taking me to the forest, but she wants to start an investigation and trial to deem collars as useless and get rid of them!_

_**Nick, Nick, such small** _   
_**people tend to say such** _   
_**big words. These things don't** _   
_**happen in real life. Do you** _   
_**know how much it would** _   
_**cost for her to take you and** _   
_**herself to the forest?** _   
_**She's a meter maid with very** _   
_**small pay in such an expensive** _   
_**to live in city. As much as you and me both love the forest....** _

_**She's not taking us.** _

_Us? US?!_   
_I hate you, and I'd be damned if I haven't gotten rid of me by the time she does take me to the forest!_

_**Nick, I am you! I love** _   
_**the forest as much as you--** _

_No! You don't, you're a liar!_

_You just want me to get rid of_   
_her, **TO HURT HER!**_

_**Nick, nobody will ever** _   
_**get rid of the collars.** _   
_**Every group that ever arose** _   
_**for justice and removal of them? Died off like our parents Nick.** _

_MY PARENTS._

_**What makes you think a** _   
_**rabbit meter maid is going** _   
_**to "save the predators"?** _

_I...I don't know._

_But it will happen._

_I hope it will...._

_**Wishful thinking only** _   
_**means greater disappointments.** _

_**XXX** _

"Nick, wake up."

A soft feminine voice pushed the clouds out of Nick's sleepy brain, alerting the body to wake up.

His lead heavy eyelids peeled apart, and they found them selves staring into the lavender shine of Judy's eyes in moonlight.

He was in her car, parked outside his apartment building, and the night sky around them let thousands of stars play in the sky.

Too bad they were all covered by the dark rain clouds that had plagued Zootopia for twenty years.

The fox woke up, eyes fuzzy and body hazy, the sandy clutches of sleep managing to grip his body still.

"Where are we?" Nick asked, body shifted so that he was laying to where his eyes naturally looked back at Judy. The rabbit unlocked the car doors, and stared back at him.

"I asked where you lived remember? You asked me to take you home," Her words were soft and careful, a wall of yawning stretching from her muzzle afterwards.

It was two thirty in the morning, after all.

Nick mentally smacked himself, at how he hadn't remembered.  
But deep down inside, there was a little twinge in his heart. Kind of like a jab of a pin, or a needle. Something in him, didn't want to leave the rabbit. Not at all. It was like a cold paranoid fear that the rabbit would leave... and he'd never see her again.

"Y-yeah, right, um, thanks Jude." He stuttered, faking a smile, and unbuckling his seatbelt. The fox's paws trembled and his breathing was choppy and shaky.

Judy could tell that something about him wasn't right, there was a nervous feeling musking in the air around him. It was too easy to not notice.

"Nick, what's wrong?" She sighed, slumping back into her seat, frustrated with his constant low headed attitude.

The fox was aware she was catching on to his mopey attitude, and tried to paint over it with a forced burst of laughter.

"Nothin', I'm fine, sorry, just tired and stuff-- don't worry."

Judy squinted down suspiciously, rain beginning to slowly start plopping against the car, engulfing the air in it's moist, sweet scent.

The shadow's of rain drops on the windshield reflected onto his muzzle, as if they were painting his being in tears.

Tears that he physically held back in his body, but the world bled the foreshadow over him.

The rabbit motioned her paw for him to answer, becoming impatient.

The fox didn't succumb.

"T-thanks again Judy, for everything." He grinned, stalling so he could stay in the car longer. Leaving her side brought so many fears into his poor schizophrenic head, he was afraid she'd leave him behind.

Possibly Forget him.

Nick was being choked by his own personal fears and paranoia.

"You're stalling, Nick," Judy caught on, frowning. The howling of wind and rain outside picked up with every tensing second. "What's wrong?"

Something didn't click right in Nick's head, because he snapped back at her, teeth bared and throat snarling, " **I SAID I'M FINE!** "

The rabbit pressed into her seat, nose twitching and heart beating out of her little chest. The fox hesitantly, yet angrily clawed the door open, and slammed it shut, shoving his hands in his pockets, storming off into the apartment complex.

The last glimpse Judy caught of him that night was through a distorted, watery windshield.

**XXX**

_**Look at what you've done now,** _   
_**you fuckwit.** _

_I-I... I don't know what happened.._

_**You scared her away! Fucking pathetic thing.** _

_I thought you said she was going to be the death of me!_

_**....** _

_Answer me._

_**...** _

_ANSWER ME._

_**......** _

_ANSWER ME!_

_**XXX** _

Judy Hopps slumped into her room, clothes soaking wet, ears drooping, and brain tired.

She had no idea what she did to make Nick storm off like that. What if she lost the only friend she made in this godforsaken city?

The rabbit shook the thoughts out of her head, dropping her vest on the jacket hook behind the door.

She took a long hot shower, and trued to scrub the stress out of her fur violently, to some calming success when she shut the water off.

The rabbit dressed in an oversized t-shirt, and plopped onto her bed, staring at the ceiling, lost in thoughts of Nick and her job.

Mostly Nick.

After some time, and when her eyes just started to grow heavy, and the dark clutches of sleep began to grasp her brain in fuzz...

Her phone rang.

Judy sprang up, and hoped to see that it was Nick. If it was, she'd apologize for whatever she did, whatever she did wrong, and then figure out what happened.

She wouldn't lose her only friend here.

To her dismay, it was her parents, their happy gleaming faces on the call screen.

The rabbit sighed, and picked up the phone, pressing the answer button glumly, before plastering a fake smile to her face.

"Heyyy, mom and dad!~" She gleamed, observing their happy, observant faces.

"Hey Jude! How's the big ol' city over there?" Her father asked, his big pal voice booming through his voice, reminding Judy of when she was back home; and she was picking carrots and blueberries with him on cool, golden evenings.

"Hey dad, where's mom?" She asked, looking around the phone, as if they were alive in her screen.

Her father motioned to something off screen, and in came her mother, beaming happily back at her daughter.  
"Judy! How are you?"

Judy smiled back warily. "I'm good ma."

Her father chimed in. "Made any friends yet? Last time we called you said there wasn't anyone who was... there for you."

Judy's blood curdled. Then it froze; Nick was a fox.

In her parents' minds, fox=bad.

Her brain painted over her words with lies. "Oh, yeah, I made a friend, erm, he's really sweet, great guy."

Mrs. Hopps gave a whistle, a  teasing tone melting with her voice. "Judy Hopps, a boy hmm? You like him?"

Judy lied. "Yeah, um, he's really nice, has his own personal problems and all,"

 _You know, having your life in hell is only a small personal problem._ She thought off screen sarcastically.

"But he's really nice."

Mr. Hopps eyed her a little suspiciously. "Is he a bunny?"

"Oh no, he's a fox--"

Judy wanted to mentally smack herself silly. Hadn't she taken care as to lie so far so that they didn't find out?

She saw her parents happy expressions explode into anxiety. "A fox Judy? Dear God, you know how dangerous they are?" Her mother cried, observing her daughters face for any signs of hurt, or injury.

"Judes, you do know that they love using people, they're chronic liars Judy. Scum of the earth, if anything." Her father scolded, concern etched in his face.

Something snapped in Judy's head. Judy had heard enough about foxes being evil or being shifty, scummy creatures. Her muzzle opened with anger,  
"Just because he's a fox doesn't mean anything! You two can happen to be liars too, him being a fox doesn't mean anything! He just so happens to be the nicest person I've met in this goddamn city, and you two want me to leave him behind? You two don't even call me everyday like you said you would, nobody is here for me, but he is! If you don't like him, don't think about him!"

It felt  _so good_ to let her anger pour out, to bleed away and let her parents be forced to hear it. Even though she was a little shaken herself from cussing at them, she felt so strong.

"Judy, watch that attitude young lady!" Mr. Hopps began, his eyebrows furrowing angrily, before Judy exploded again.

"Maybe attitude is what we need in this world now, because yours isn't doing anyone any good!"

Judy slammed her phone down and hung up; then put her parents on her blocked numbers list.

That night, Judy fell asleep doing research.

On her paper, the following was scribbled:

**_Five months to save $2000_ **   
**_ASK FOR PROMOTION, higher ranks means faster pay Judy._ **

**_vendetta forest camping prices;_ **

$ ** _30 a night per person,_**  
 ** _Take nick for 4 nights_**

**_Start getting some connections with anti-collar activists._ **

**_Let's see if we can start a case to find collars anti-constitutional._ **

**_Call nick tomorrow, apologize, find out whatever I did wrong--_ **   
**_Invite him to lunch during lunch break_ **

**_parking duty tomorrow._**  
 _ **woohoo**_.


	10. Why I Like the Pizzaman

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy hates delivery people. New arch introduced, and no, this is not a pizza gate reference.

Nick Wilde's eyes pulled open, crackling and crusty. The room around him was a deep, dark bluish hue.

The clouds from the outside, and the rain in the city was the reason this constant, depressing air existed.

Perhaps, it was to punish the city for its atrocities and injustice.

His room, which still held its depressing atmosphere, seemed not to choke him like it did anymore. If anything, it seemed a little more relaxed, ever since he met...

Judy.

Now he sprang wide awake, and covered his muzzle with horror. What he pulled last night, might have just pushed away the only person who cared for him more than anyone, in this godforsaken city.

" _Nonononono,_ " He cried, and stumbled out of bed frantically, only dressed in boxers, fur messier than ever before. The fox ran to his corded phone, and picked it up, only to find no dial tone. There was nothing on.

The fox set it down, and noticed that the room was extremely chilly. Freezing, even. He rubbed his bare arms over his chest, eyes darting around the dark room, confused.

Hadn't he left the light on last night?

Nick's brows curved, and he scratched the back of his neck, fingers digging through his rough, greasy fur.

He felt dirty, he hadn't showered since he was discharged from the hospital. The fox stripped out of his boxers, and stepped into the bathtub; the tough plastic icy cold against his paw pads.

His hands turned for the hard steel knob and twisted, only to find the sweet release of cool, refreshing water, non existent.

Nick growled angrily, and slammed his fist into the tile wall, shaking the shampoo on a shelf hanging from the shower head.

He stood for a moment, thinking, letting the icy air curl through his fur and under his legs, slowly starting to shiver.

_This is weird._

Nick hopped out of the shower, pushing the curtains aside, the metal rings clanking against the rusty overhead bar.

The fox padded on the cold floor into the main apartment, and stopped at his light switch, where he flicked it.

No light turned on.

He turned it off, and just in case, flicked it again.

No light turned on.

The fox rubbed his paws through his fur, inhaling and exhaling stressfully.

Then it clicked.

He hadn't been to work in two whole days, and knowing how strict the laws were, he was possibly... fired.

...and he was expecting the pay check to pay off the apartment... and get that eviction warning out his face.

Nick's jaw dropped, his eyes bulged out of his skull, claws digging into his scalp. " _ **OH NO,**_ "  
He whined strongly, eyes glazing with the hot pins of tears, heart sinking deep into his stomach.

His breath started to choke up, and he felt like a frantic mess, his eyes looked to his doorstep, and sure enough, there were two letters delivered when he was asleep.

He didn't care to open them; on both were huge stamps

_**NOTICE OF EVICTION** _

_**NOTICE OF TERMINATION** _

The fox threw his head back and yelled with anger, fury and fear.

He had lost everything, quite literally.

Well, everything he had left.

The fox couldn't take everything, he was hyperventilating, his lungs wheezing. By god, he had lost everything, he had no home, no job, he had nothing!

He snapped, and in a fit of rage, grabbed his alarm clock, and threw it at his box T.V, the glass screen exploded inwards. The fox roared with utter fury, gripping his desk and flipping it, a lamp, and glass vases cried to the floor and shattered with death.

The fox ravaged the whole apartment, to which in his poor twisted head, somehow had morphed into the room from his childhood.

Nick lost it. He wailed, he broke everything he could, and he screamed, sometimes with pain, but other times with fury, eyes rolling back white; hot ivory fangs dripping with anger.

His claws unsheathed, and he clawed at the walls, killing the wallpaper, the wallpaper hated him, and he hated it,  _HE HATED THE WINDOW, AND IT HATED HIM,_ _ **HE HATED THE BED, AND IT HATED HIM,**_ _ **HE HATED HIMSELF, AND IT HATED HIM,**_  
 _ **EVERYTHING WAS LAUGHING AT HIM, AND HE HATED IT, HE HAD LOST EVERYTHING, AND EVERYTHING LAUGHED!**_

Nick let out one final roar of hot, white fury. His eyes rolled back in his skull, teeth peeled back to show death, and vocal chords grinded out a lyric of anger, hate, regret, sadness, of lowliness.

...everything was blue again, and his breathing calmed to a wheeze, then a self pitying cry. Nick put his palms to his eyes, and cried.

He cried till it felt like he was bleeding tears.

**XXX**

Judy's eyes felt dry and hot, burned from the constant staring into her laptop screen, her soft paws rubbed them.

It was her lunch break, and she had gone back home, with a blueberry smoothie and two slices of veggie pizza from some local pizzeria she forgot the name of.

A slice was gone, and the other lay half eaten on a paper plate beside her. Her paws wrapped around the coldness of her smoothie in it's clear, shiny plastic cup, and sucked in the pink plastic straw, letting the flavor coolly numb her head.

Judy was currently looking up any lawyers or activists who were willing to band together to find collars unconstitutional, but to do this, she had to go deep through the internet.

Now she found herself in a chat room, discussing a few kind words with a grizzly bear, whom was a lawyer in Savanna Central, very young, married to a polar bear, and who was pregnant with their first child.

He went by the name of Patrick Woods, and Judy could tell there was something special about him; a fire that seemed to burn in his speech when he talked about getting rid of the collars. He had already had a small group staked up, and when Judy was directed to find him in a private chatroom.

Their conversation lasted for the past 30 minutes:

_**What makes you so interested in having collars removed, Officer Hopps?** _

She began to let her fingers clack against the keyboard.

_**There's somebody I'm starting to like--** _

She bit her lip, and sighed, rubbing her temples.

She clicked the back space a couple times.

_**There's a friend of mine who's really affected by them. He also works at the D.P.C.U.** _

_**I think the Deceased Predator Cleanup Unit is disgusting, the fact they only hire predators to clean up their dead self's is mortifying. I was on the council; it was one of my first court rooms, to see that they didn't institute that Unit; that they sent the bodies home to their families to be properly buried.** _

_**I still don't understand why we have these collars on to begin with.** _

Judy sighed again, more so from exaughstion and overwhelming amounts of feelings and thoughts clouding her poor little head.

_**Will your son have to wear one once he is born?** _

She waited a minute.

_**Yes.** _

The poor bunny rubbed her temples, and was about to type again, when he had already entered text.

_**There's a really bad thunderstorm brewing, and I'm going to pick up my wife from her gynecologist.** _

Judy groaned, and flipped her laptop closed. The bunny was stressed, and not feeling up to the rest of the day.

She downed the rest of her smoothie, threw the half slice of pizza in her mini fridge, and got back to work.

**_XXX_ **

Katherine Woods waited near the edge of Savanna Gynecology, a large building on the ridge of the district. Her husband should've been here by now, but of course, he was always late.

The rain had begun to fall like bullets, ripping and tearing, the air was an acrid hot temperature, rather than cooled by the water.

Thunder exploded loudly across the sky, sending white and purple hot cracks through reality in the city.

She folded her arms, and growled. The young polar bear was going to have a piece of her husband when she got home, the thunder scared her enough, and the looming hot air only made the lonely, huge, empty, and fog covered parking lot.

Her eyes wandered down to her growing belly, which held the child she was carrying, Patrick's child,  _their child._

She felt so happy saying that. Their child, her dreams of growing up to be a beautiful polar bear, and getting married came true, she was tat bear she envisioned.

Except a little angrier; well, currently, at his husband for taking so damn long.

Her eyes averted back to the parking lot, and there it was.

A tall figure, cloaked in a long, dripping trenchcoat. Her blood froze. It took a step forward, being distant and barely visible in the fog. She covered her stomach, protecting her growing child. It took another step forward. She pushed back against the wall.

She closed her eyes, she was seeing things, there wasn't a weird mammal dressed in a freaky trenchcoat in the parking lot.

Her eyes opened, and it was gone.

With a crack of lightning, an arm circled around her throat, and pulled her to the side of the building, the other paw bringing a knife in between her eyes.

 _"Listen here you little shit,"_ It growled, pressing the tip dangerously against the bridge of her muzzle. She whined.

 _Patrick was going to be here any moment now. He is going to fix this. He was going to maul the hell out of him, he is going to fix this,_ She frantically attempted to soothe her terrified head, and instead of reaching to her throat to protect herself, her motherly instincts kept her hands glued to her belly.

 _"I know who you are and who your hubby is, Katherine,"_ It spoke a little more calmly, grip relaxing. She whined, and its paw dropped the knife into his pocket.

She whined again, as she felt its paw run up and down her rump violatingly; tears burning at the corners of her eyes.

 _"You tell him to quit his shit with that anti-collar case he's riling people up about... yeah... you tell him to quit his shit..."_ Its hot breath burned her ears, its paw moving up to her chest, where it painfully squeezed her breast, and she cried out.

 _"Or I'll take away everything he loves and everything you love..."_ It's words dripped like snake venom, his paw not releasing it's painful, white hot grip on her breast.

_"You go ahead and tell him about this... about all this... and tell him to drop it.... or I'll find you and kill that little baby in you... yes, I'll kill that little baby in you... and_ **_fuck the living shit out of you; pretty girl, got it?"_ **

She nodded again fearfully, and he released the grip on her breast, where it ached as if it were still clenching it.

One last time, its free paw cupped in between her thighs, where she whined in a more crying fashion.

It leaned forward to her ear again, and it's hot breath scalded her body again.

 _"Tell him Glass Shwitzer sends this message... he'll know who I am.... and tell him she found himself a very,"_  It pressed its fingers painfully inbetween her thighs,  _"....very...pretty wife."_

Its grip was suddenly gone, and like waking from a nightmare, he was gone.

She fell to her knees and whined, tears slowly starting to wiggle through her fur like cracks in a wall.

It wasn't a nightmare, the violating ache between her legs and her breast was still there.

"Kathy, what are you doing on the side? This is where they throw away the trash," She heard Patrick's deep, caring voice, and her head lashed up to see him, holding an umbrella over her head, eyes observing her concerned.

She launched up and threw herself at him, sobbing loudly into his shoulder, and he pushed her back a little. "Careful there white chocolate, don't want to hurt the baby," He still embraced her, but was questioning her sudden outburst.

Well, pregnancy did make woman much more emotional, especially female polar bears, whose hormones tended to fly about crazily.

Katherine's mind drifted to what the figure in black had said.   
She buried her face in his chest.  
"No,"

**_"You go ahead and tell him about this... about all this... and tell him to drop it.... or I'll find you and kill that little baby in you... yes, I'll kill that little baby in you... and fuck the living shit out of you; pretty girl, got it?"_ **

She wailed in his shoulder, "No, I don't want to hurt the baby."

**_XXX_ **

"I hate parking duty." Judy declared, hanging her vest on her coat hanger.

The deep, pitch black, blue of night had claimed her bedroom, and with a tired flick of her paw, the light above flicked to life, casting the room in yellow, dull light.

In her right paw was a bag of carry out Chinese food (all from the vegetarian menu of course), and balanced on one of the boxes was a cup of coffee.

While she roughly turned to her desk to set things down, tired, but happily bouncing, her foot got tripped by a floor board. The bunny tumbled to the ground chest first, and yelped out, curling in pain, pressing her forearms against her breasts.

 _"Fuck,"_ She whispered, wind lost, and chest in fire with pain.

Then a scalding sensation ripped through her thigh, and again, she yelped, turning away, only to find her coffee spilled all over the floor, and now on the outside of her thigh.

Her eyes and heart grew angry, but somewhat dissatisfied. She really wanted that coffee.

The bunny groaned, hugging her now slightly aching chest into her knees for a few moments longer, before standing up, and grabbing the bag.

She stepped to the desk again, only to slip on the spilled coffee, falling back on her butt, dropping the bag again, but this time, the boxes spilled their food contents onto the floor messily, mixing with the spilled drink.

She cried for a few seconds, because not only did her butt hurt, but she had lost dinner she was really looking forward to, and now she had nothing to eat.

Sadly, she cleaned up the mess, and was careful not to slip over the coffee as she cleaned.

Soon, her stomach ached, and her chinese food was in a garbage pail, all soaked in with coffee.

The bunny sat at her desk, and took out all her pocket belonging, her phone, wallet, and I.D. all laid out on the desk.

Just out of tired curiosity, she pulled her wallet towards her, and opened it, stomach sinking only to find a ten and one five.

She had spent fifty dollars on un eaten food in the trash, and that was all her money till she got paid in three days.

Her mind heaved, as she picked up her phone and dialed up some 24/7 pizzeria she read in a magazine.

 _"Cool pizza, we're cool, blah blah, what do you want."_ A bored, angsty teen answered the phone, and Judy just about screamed at him.

She breathed, swallowed hard, and answered politely.

"Can I order a veggie pizza?"

She heard smacking lips.

"I dunno, can you?"

She snapped,  
"JUST GIVE ME THE FUCKING PIZZA!"

She heard silence, then the voice come back shaky. "Yes ma'am. Address?"

She gave him the info, and slammed her phone on the table, letting her head rest on it.

She wasn't happy. Not happy with no coffee, not happy with no, good, expensive Chinese food, and not happy with cheap, 10 dollar pizza.

When the phone rang again, she picked it up without looking at the caller. " **WHAT DO YOU WANT?!** "

There was a long silence, and she swore she could hear her voice reverb in the call. "Judy?"

She recognized the voice, and she played it off innocently. "Oh, hiya Nick, whatcha want?"

She heard a nervous chuckle. "Uhm, that's the funniest thing, can I come over?"

She groaned. "Uhm, no, it's late and I'm tired. You should be going to sleep too."

She heard his voice grow desperate. "Can I please become over?"

She growled this time, all her stress lighting a fuse. "I said no, Nick, no means no. I'm really tired."

His voice turned into a plea, "Please Judy, can I please come over? I--"

**_"I SAID NO NICK!"_ **

The line went dead quiet, and she could hear herself in his own call again.

"...judy please, I'm scared and cold.."

Her mind became diluted and confused. "What are talking about?"

Silence again.

"I'm-- I'm in big trouble Judy. Please let me come over."

Judy was stern. "Nick, if you don't tell me what's going on, I'm not even going to consider letting you come over."

She heard sigh painfully. "I don't have a home anymore Judy. Or a job."

Her anger shattered away into pure concern. "What?! Are you okay? Where are you?"

He was dead silent again. "What if I told you I was outside your apartment?"

Judy hung up, and walked to door, where Nick stood, head and ears down in shame. He had two lightly packed suitcases beside him, and his fur was soaking wet.

His eyes darted away from her, and tried to avert the awkwardness.

"Could you let this poor, cold, soaked dog in?"


	11. Seize like an Egyptian (Hey-O, Hey-O!)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick has a climactic episode because he's too stubborn to help himself. Also, Judy lets him move in temporarily.

The rain was pounding down unusually hard for the night; while it rained almost 24/7.

Judy was standing outside her tiny bathroom, leaning against the door, letting Nick shower.

"I'm sorry I don't have any food," Judy said over the sound of the running water. She heard the pattern of drops falling switch, motioning that he was paying attention.

"It's fine Judy. That's the least of my worries." She heard his voice dry and scraggly, with some sort of muffled tone to it; like he was sick.

She heaved her chest, and stepped away from the door, to her closet, where she pulled down a some blankets and two pillows. She laid out a little bed on the floor, and just as she clapped her hands with satisfaction, Nick shut off the water, and another battery of coughs were unleashed.

Judy sighed, the cold rain had probably gotten him sick. Already, while pacing the room, she made a mental note of things she needed; lots of fluids, a cold towel, and some Tylenol.

As if on autopilot, she gathered a bottle of Tylenol out of her drawer, a small towel from her small closet, and poured out some orange juice in a cup.

After laying them all out on the counter, with the exception of the small towel she kept in her paws, the rabbit laid deeply into the bed, which was growing crusty and the sheets smelling.

She had to wash them soon, but she'd always found herself all work & play, but never to clean her messes.

"J-Judy, I don't feel so good," His voice bogged out, and her suspicions were reassured when the clink of porcelain was heard, followed by the upchucking of vomit into toilet water.

She tuned her attention away from the nauseating sound, and back to the silence of the room; the confines of her own personal reality.

That was now being shared with a fox.

A male fox, at that.

Her cheeks puffed with stressed thoughts, and she rubbed her temples to massage them away.  
Instead, they just refilled.

 _Calm down Bunny, he's just staying for a little while. You aren't going to pull any funny business, got it?!_ She screamed internally, mentally smacking herself.

Her confused thoughts and emotions were interrupted when the door opened, and out popped a pale looking Nick.... with a thin line of blood hanging from his lips.

"J-Judy..... I don' feel so good.." He sputtered, before the bent on all fours, and vomited on her floors... but the bile was a deep crimson red, the deepest shade of mushroom red.....

Judy jumped up like a spring, and helped pat his back to prevent him from choking on his own bile.

"Nick! Christ, what's going on!?" Judy cried, furiously hitting his back, as he started gasping for air, all the while spitting up his own blood.

"W-with-draw-" He spat up again, his eyes turning bloodshot red, every muscle tight and knotted, pointing to something out in the distance.

Her eyes began to tear with fear, she had no idea what was wrong with him or what he was pointing at.

His voice grasped onto what breath he had left; to which all was almost sucked into a black, fatal void.

"B-bag!"

Judy saw his paw point to near her door, where his duffelbag was, and quickly scampered to where it was. Just as she left him, he collapsed into the puddle of his own blood, seizing and writhing, eyes rolling into the back of his head, violently thrashing in quick, short, convulsed spasms.

She didn't know what he needed! What was he crying for? He was seizing up! He was going to die!

She threw clothes, underwear, and whatever he had packed, out and far, desperate for something that looked important.

She found a small ziploc bag at the bottom of the duffel, and tore it open, only to find a bottle with the words  _Fluphenazine,_  a syringe, replacable needles, and a bottle of Rx sleeping aids.

She clasped at her head, and cried ouloud, not knowing what to do. Running on last minute desperation, and the horrible sounds of Nick gurgling, she took the bottle, read it quickly, and attached the needle to the syringe, filled it to the dosage it said on the bottle, and scampered back to Nick, who had almost stopped moving completely.

She sobbed loudly and pressed the needle deep into his forearm, injecting the fluid into him.

He stopped moving, and so did Judy's breathing.

He was quiet, and then the ringing of the room's loud silence shattered her ears.

"N-Nick--"

He wasn't moving.

"N-Nick, please wake up--"

His eyes were permanently rolled into the back of his head.

"N-no.. _nononono..._ "

She cupped his cheeks, and looked into his cold, dead eyes. She wailed, and threw herself into his chest, her halt salty tears falling into his cold, unmoving chest fur.

She jumped a foot in the air when he vomited again, this time, rather a misty spray than a puddle; all over her.

" _ **NICK!**_ " She cried, and clutched to his chest tightly, while he coughed, sputtered, and tingled back to life.

"I-I'm... I'm okay." He mustered, regaining his breath rather shakily. After some breathing work, she hopped off of Nick, a little flustered by her own actions.

Nick coughed a final round, then curled up and shivered, his head feeling white, and the rest of his body freezing cold.

"Th-those were with-w-w-with-withdrawal symptoms." He sputtered, clutching his knees, shaking violently.

"I bleed a little in my nose, and it kinda drips into my th-throat. I think I'm sick, s-so I just threw up too." He started to regain breath, his chest rose up and down desperately for more air.

Judy clutched his paw in her hand.

"What was with the seizure then?" Her voice pressed, but wasn't demanding, her words were like silk.

Nick sneezed a few times, before looking over to her. He looked terrible, pale, trembling, weak.

Why was he so sick?

"I haven't taken my medication in a couple days... My body is so dependent on it." Nick slowly curled up, and slides down so that his head rested in her lap.

Judy felt the tips of her ears burn.

"O-oh... Why haven't you been taking your medications?" She worried, petting his head while his chest breathed rapidly.

She felt her suck her throat dry, and felt a tingle spread through the lower part of her body.

_Quit it, or he'll smell you!_

Then her eyes took notice of his left arm, where the old scars she saw from before.... Looked horribly infected. The small, few remaining scabs, were colored a vomit yellow, and his fire around was a darker color, as if the skin beneath was bruised, almost.

"Nick, this is why you're sick," She picked up his arm, and observed the mess.

She sighed, and headed to the bathroom; not before carefully setting a pillow under his head, where her lap was.

She pulled out a half used tube of neosporin, and gauze with hundreds of small holes in it. For breathing, the old discarded box read. Next on her list was an old bottle of antibiotics she had brought from Bunnyburrow's, eight months ago.

Headed back into the room, Nick was groaning feverishly and coldly, curling into a ball onto the crude bed Judy laid out on the floor.

"J-Judy, you don't have to, I'll be fine." He whimpered, before Judy shook her head, kneeling near his arm, gently parting the fur in places, gently soothing him with a countryish tune she hummed.

Nick winced when she rubbed the antiseptic cream into the largest infected scab, and she gently shushed him, finishing up. Her paws then reached for the breathable gauze, slowly and tenderly wrapping his arm up.

His weak, tired eyes viewed her with awe, with some sort of tired happiness. Something burning in his chest, something he liked feeling there.

"There, you feeling okay?" She evaluated her work, before looking back into his tired, awestruck eyes. They snapped out of their trance.

Nick nodded, as Judy gave him three of the antibiotic pills and a glass of water, downing them all quickly.

Just as Judy turned away, she felt his paw reach up and grab hers.

_"Thank you, Judy. Thank you so much."_

He couldn't see her face, but from the other side, her whole face lit on fire, and her eyes teared up.

"N-No problem."

She paced into the bathroom with her pajamas; just an oversized ZPD T-shirt, and some tight sleeping shorts.

Just after she stripped down to her undergarments, the mirror caught her eye.

She slowly shifted her whole body so she could observe herself, and it was very rare she did this. She turned and examined her whole self with careful eyes, brushing matted parts of fur out violently.

Her eyes traced her figure, and she had no idea what she was doing, she laughed a little bit.

Her eyes were pleased with what they say, but the messages they sent to her mind were worrying.

 _Your chest is tiny,_ a small voice in the back of he head bashed her. Her eyes drew to her breasts, which were more petite to her curvy lower half.

She grew red with embarrassment and shame, covering her chest with her arms.

She smacked her lips and shook her head distastefully. "Judy, what are you doing?"

She didn't know why she had cared about her appearance up to here. It was the fact Nick was with her, and she knew it. She felt the lower half of her body grow heated, and she cursed her hormones, before slipping on her pajamas.

She stepped out to find the blood was cleaned up, and Nick was trudging to the closet to put away the mop and bucket.

"Nick! What are you doing, you're supposed to be laying down!" Judy grew cross, thumping her foot on the floor.

Nick turned around and grinned tiredly. "Least I could do." He mustered, before tumbling back to the makeshift bed Judy had crafted for him.

She smiled warmly. "Well, thanks, but don't get out of bed again you big dummy."

He nodded, and curled into a ball.

She giggled.

The rabbit hopped onto her bed, and relaxed her muscles.

She curiously looked down to Nick, and felt the lower part of her body squirm again. She squeezed her thighs shut.

Like someone shoved thoughts into her head, her mouth formed a question.

"Nick, who was your boss at the D.P.C.U.?"

He turned over, and sighed.  
"Some crazy guy named Ethan Glass Schwitzer."


	12. User/Eraser; You're Such a Comfortable Liar!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy's judgement is clouded by heat; contact with Patrick is made again.

_**The Woods Family Household** _

Katherine Woods sobbed into her husband's shoulder, gripping his strong frame tightly.

"Jesus Kathy, did you get a look at him?" He questioned, holding her tightly for comfort.

She shook her head, and continued to hold her in embrace. Deep inside his strong, un-bearlike muscled body, an angry red coal was burning, one that was threatened by the coming of cold water unless he kept quiet; kept to only a small, hot coal.

"Oh my God, I'm so sorry I wasn't there Kathy... Oh my God, I'm  _so sorry._ " He continued, keeping his wife locked tightly in his arms, still careful not to press against the child growing in her stomach.

After a while, he managed ro get her calmed to where she could sit down on the couch with him.

Sometime later, despite a nagging regret holding him back, he came forward with a question. "Did you at least catch something about him?"

She paused, before nodding and staring at her lap. "He told me to tell you his name was Glass Schwitzer."

**XXX**

Judy lay on her bed warily, eyes wrinkled and tired, but heart restless and anxious. Nick's soft breathing was heard from the side of her, where he was curled into a ball in the bed she had laid out for him.

_"Ethan Glass Schwitzer."_

Where had she heard that name before? She could have sworn that it belonged to someone important in the city. She had seen it places, seen it somewhere.  
Somewhere it didn't belong. So he was the founder of the D.P.C.U, but what else? She had seen it somewhere else, she had to have.

It was bugging her, God, somewhere inside of her head something was clicking, but she didn't know what. Her curiosity died like a light when an explosive clap of lightning shattered across the sky, quickly followed by the booming, cracking thunder.

Her body shivered, and everything in her body trembled. She hated thunder.

The rabbit then got an idea, one that she knew was wrong, one that had completely forced out her previous thoughts of who in the hell Ethan Glass Schwitzer was.

_Don't you fucking dare Judy. Be legible girl._

She couldn't help it. Another loud clap of lightning sealed the deal for her, and she threw the sheets off of herself, hopping quietly to the foot of the bed.

Judy tiptoed over to the makeshift bed she had laid out for Nick.

 _I'm probably going to regret this later,_ she took a deep breath, and gently crept next to him.

Her whole body shook and trembled, this was all far more terrifying than the lightning that only served as a motive for an idea of hers.

 _Oh Judy, why are you doing this._ She clenched her eyes, and looked back to see him. She nearly cursed under her breath, watching his bare, lean chest rise and fall with his breathing.

Her heart pumped out of her chest as she slowly scooted closer and closer, and it was just then that she felt the heat from his breath wash over her face.

She squeezed her thighs together again, and continued to quietly scoot closer. Finally, she had her body close enough.

Using her trembling paws, she lifted his arms up, and moved herself into his chest. She pressed her whole body into him, and hugged her paws around him, deeply inhaling his scent.

_Oh God Judy, what are you doing?_

She didn't care, she loved breathing in that male musk, the scent of fox overpowering her nose. She sighed pleasantly, rubbing her cheek into the soft, cream colored fur of his chest.

_Stupid, stupid bunny._

She couldn't help being around him, she couldn't help how she felt around him anymore.

She unclenched her thighs,  and felt her whole body start to sweat. It was a teasing feeling she loved so much, but hated that it was only teasing.

_I'm going to regret this a lot._

She pushed her hips into his, feeling the push of his nether region into hers. She moaned lightly.

She wanted to yell at herself so bad, she was acting to inappropriate, touching him against his will; hell, he was asleep!

Her whole body froze when she felt him shift in his sleep, felt him gently shifted his hips so that they mashed with hers again.

She held back a moan by pushing her face into his chest fur, holding her paws around his waist.

Her whole face was on fire, the tips of her ears would've been visibly red if it wasn't so dark.

She embraced the whole moment. Being pressed against his furred body, her face buried into the heavy, yet silky fur of his chest, and her nether regions mashed up against his.

She cursed her heat, cursed being a virgin, cursed it all to hell. She enjoyed every second of it, even if Nick wasn't awake. Even if he didn't feel her pressing her lower body into his, feel the dampness slowly spreading across there, she loved every second of it.

If only she knew Nick had woken up when he shifted, and was more than flustered to feel her press herself into his bare chest, or for the fact of the matter, pressing her hips into his, so that she could gently pleasure herself against him.

At first, he felt a little uncomfortable, if anything, rather violated. Later on, it faded into a slow acceptance, then into a little burning warmth in his stomach that he seemed to enjoy.

When she fell asleep after pressing herself against him for the final few minutes, he wrapped his arms around her back protectively, holding her snugly in his chest.

He pressed a light kiss into the top of her head, a small, happy bow smile curving on his lips.

He curled his tail around them, and let the tapping of the rain soothe him to sleep.

**XXX**

A notification noise rung out in the room with a mild reverb, waking the sleeping rabbit from her slumber.

Once the rest of her body started to come out from it's cold, numb trance, only to have a feeling of movement move across her backside, and bottom.

Her body froze in realization, something she hadn't done last night. One of his arms were hugged tightly around her back, the other around her waist, with his paw gripping her bottom. His body was curled around her; and she found her hips even more forcibly mashed into his.

Judy bit her bottom lip, staring at the way he had shifted his body so that their chests were aligned, but his waist twisted so that their hips were laid against each other; nether regions pressed warmly and tightly against each other, still behind the fabric of their sleeping clothes.

She smiled, and gently began gyrating her hips again, slowly pressing against his warmness.

She buried her face even deeper in his fur, slowly gyrating her hips more, slowly panting.

"Can I help you?" His voice was wide awake, teasing almost, with just a hint of  _what are you doing?_ thrown in the mix.

Her body quickly thrust out of his arms, face fiery red and hot with embarrassment.

She said nothing, only scrambled to her feet and ran into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her back.

"Damnit Judy," She knocked her head back against the door, closing her eyes tightly.

_Look at the mess you've made! Not only that, but you probably got him hard as a fucking rock, and left him there!_

She groaned, and massaged her eyes with her fists. Her body was too red hot and full of embarrassment to go back out in face him. Instead, rather, she stripped down to her bare fur, and stepped in the shower.

She let the hot, scalding water punish her for her inappropriate actions, she kept reminding herself that she was a bad, bad bunny.

It didn't shake the excitement she felt, though, the excitement that still burned, nestled in between her thighs. To which she cursed her heat under, of course.

"Idiot." She whisper yelled, clutching the sides of her head, squeezing her thighs together, restricting the water from running inbetween them.

Today was going to be a long day.

**XXX**

Judy sat awkwardly on her bed, looking through her laptop, a paper pad and pen at her side. She laid belly down, glancing over at Nick, who was laying the same way, observing her computer.

She was looking up things for camping, rates at the forest campgrounds, things to try and make Nick forget about her actions earlier that morning.

Still, Nick didn't forget. His thoughts kept returning back to the feelings of Judy pressing herself against him, her face deep in his chest fur--

And she just ran off, leaving him hard as a fucking rock. He could even feel the dampness of her through his sleeping pants, fuck,  _he could feel it, smell it._

Still, he left the topic to rest, but his emotions kept wanting to rip our of their facade, especially the  _desire._ God, it burned inside him so eagerly, yet so shamefully.

He couldn't take it.

"Judy," He started hesitantly, eyes darting to the side, before he shut the laptop quickly, gaining a startle from the bunny.

"This morning. Let's talk about that." He sighed, turning his muzzle head towards her, eyes locked into the lavender of hers.

Judy became instantly flustered, anxious rather, and she pushed her face into the mattress.

"I don't want to," She groaned, her voice coming muffled from the sheets. He frowned, and poked her hip, where it curved just before it led to her bottom. His finger shifted back when he felt how soft her flesh was. He just felt like grabbing her by her hips, and pulling her close to him.

He shook the thoughts out of his head.

"Seriously, what was with coming to sleep in my arms when you were on your bed? And... pressing yourself--"

Judy growled a little, pulling her ears back with her paws. "I really don't want to talk about it Nick."

Nick grew irritated, and raised his voice. "Judy, you know I might not have appreciated you coming and violating me in my sleep? Maybe, did you think for a second, if I would even be okay with that?"

Judy lashed back, still laying on her stomach, but her face and damning finger lashed out at him. "How about the time you came up to my bed and slept next to me huh? So can only you do that?"

His voice grew louder than it should have, and he raised his body above hers menacingly, teeth bared, "But I didn't start rubbing and pleasing myself all over you, did I?"

Her body flinched and grew taught, face red with shame, but paws clenched in anger, either at Nick or herself.

"Yeah, I still smell your cum all over me, don't think I didn't know you were doing that all night." His voice was much harsher, but not sharp and to the point. It was like taking a rough, jagged, non pointed rock, and bashing it to her forehead.

She inhaled angrily, nostrils flaring angrily, trying to breath up some sort of response, but to no avail, all options to fire back were used up.

Nick's eyes waited on hers for an answer. But behind those cold, steely eyes of his, he didn't care whether or not she did what she did. He was just building to the point he wanted to get to, and that was  _why._

"I'm waiting for an answer Judy."  
He reminded her, his gaze still deadlocked with hers.

The rabbit was totally stuck. Rather, she wasn't, but she slowly started to see what he was getting at. "I-I-I don't know what you want me to say." Judy slid herself away, cowering away from his.

He took notice of it quickly. He growled, and threw his head back sighing. "What, are you scared of me? Goddammnit, don't be scared of me... please don't be scared of me..." 

She let her expression relax for half a second, before suddenly, she felt his claws dig into the back of her shirt, and soon, was  flung into the wall on the left side.

Her right temple and ribcage slammed against it with a crack, and she let out a loud squeak, she toppled to the floor in writhing pain, clutching her sides.

 _ **"DON'T YOU DARE BE FUCKING SCARED OF ME, EVERYBODY'S SCARED OF ME!"**_ She heard is roar full of venomous fury, but outplayed by the roar was the whine of hurt behind his voice.

_Look what you did now, stupid, stupid,_ _**ugly rabbit.** _

With the only option to hide, she scrambled under the bed, and curled herself as small as she could get, whining pathetically, watching the nose on the bridge of her muzzle twitch with terror.

"Judy! Come out! Damnit, why doesn't anyone want to be around me...  _why does nobody want me..._ "

He slipped out of his anger burst, and gently padding as quiet as she could across the dusty hardwood floor, her ears, head, then body slowly appeared to Nick's eyes.

He was laying pathetically on the floor, twisted awkwardly, with his eyes small and sad. His muzzle curved downwards, he looked like a sad little puppy.

His eyes met up to hers, and his expression saddened, but he didn't move from his place. "I'm sorry Judy." His muzzle moved slowly and shamely. "Please don't be scared of me. Please don't get mad at me. Please forgive me."

Judy cautiously got to her feet, slowly approaching him carefully. Finally, she let her shoulders relax, and sat next to him, petting his head tenderly with his paw.

His sad puppy eyes moved up to hers, but his head barely moved. "I'm sorry Judy. Please forgive me."

She sighed, and continued to pet his head between his ears, watching his body slowly rise and fall with his breathing.

"I-I think I like you Nick." She responded to the question finally, totally unprepared, and totally out of the blue. His ears perked up, and his head turned up to hers.

"What?"

She cringed away, she couldn't believe she said that, now for him to ask again, great! She felt so flustered.

"I-I-I t-think,"

_No,_

"I really like you Nick."

His frown slowly started curving upwards. Soon he looked like a little child who just got the thing he always wanted.

"You do?"

She giggled a little, and brought his head into her lap.

"Yeah. I do."

Her heart melted into pieces when his puppy eyes stayed sad, but his smile widened sweetly.

"I do too."

**XXX**

Patrick Woods sat at his desk in his home office, staring dully at his laptop.

He had never felt so stuck, so defeated. This whole anti-collar movement he was getting started, the whole idea just halted; by a maniac with a threat, and his wife held at knifepoint.

Was he really going to let this stop him? Let some prey (he assumed the animal was prey) shut down his movement to get them removed? He threatened his family's life, there was perfect reason to stop.

But the grizzly bear stared deeply into his computer, wandering aimlessly through chat boxes and files.

Soon, he stumbled upon the chat he had with the rabbit police officer he had met earlier, what was her name; Julie?

No, Judy, yes, it was Judy; he remembered.

As if some sort of stars had aligned to compel him to do so, he found his clawed fingers typing away at the heavily protected keyboard; made specifically for the paws of a strong grizzly bear.

**Do you know a Glass Schwitzer?**

He waited, oh, fifteen minutes, and aimlessly paced his office, letting the crackle of wood in the fireplace attempt to soothe his nerves.

A notification ding made him stop in his tracks, before approaching the desk again, sitting his strong body in the chair.

His eyes widened and felt a connection click in his head. Soon, things started to connect, make sense.

In the screen read;

**Not personally, but I think Nick said something about him. He was his boss at the D.P.C.U.**   
**Why do you ask?**


	13. Iron Clad Dogs

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy gets assigned her first real case, with the interests particularly tied to her research done in Nick's interest.

**_I think I've proven you wrong._ **

_I still don't believe it._  
_She doesn't love you, she doesn't like you, she's just using you._  
_Don't get your hopes up._

 **_It just seems like you're doing whatever it takes to bring_ **  
**_me down! Can you just go away and die someplace nice?_ **

_Unless you kill yourself,_  
_then sure._

 **_You bastard._ **  
**_Can't we just be happy_ **  
**_something good is_ **  
**_happening to us for once?_ **

_Something good is_  
_happening to you. I'm stuck_  
_in your stupid, idealistic head_  
_filled with fantasies and falsehoods._

 _**But you aren't** _  
_**even fucking real!** _  
_**My sick head just made** _  
_**you up!** _

_Then why do you still_  
_talk to me? Why do you insist_  
_on believing I'm so real, but still_  
_stay aware that I'm fake?_

**_WHICH IS IT?_ **

**XXX**

_**Two weeks later** _

"Alright, settle down you loudmouths, we've got quite the development today." The chief tiredly fit his eyeglasses over the bridge of his muzzle.

In his hooves was a clipboard with all the briefing info that he planned on skimming through quickly. He just wanted to sit down at his desk and sleep.

"First off," He put his hoof to the first line, "Hopps, you're off your little punishment for unnecessary force against a citizen. You'll have a case to work on later, so hold on."

His hoof reached the secondary line, to which he looked up. "Our new recruits, Officer David Slaughter, Officer Ethan Tellhan... parking duty. Officers Wellington, Wolford, Smith, Kiko, you all are with them. Clawhauser will show you to your things."

The two new recruits, sweating in their uniforms, nodded quickly; Judy was not that excited to see that they were just more timber wolves.

"Francine is on paid leave, something about pregnancy; Officer Snarloff is in the hospital for a shot in his shoulder, that's all that is."

He slammed the clipboard down seriously, put his elbows to the podium, and put his fists so that they supported his chin; with his index fingers covering his mouth thoughtfully.

"I realize things have been very slow the past year," He started, eyes glued to the podium, not changing his position.

 _I've only been here for a couple months,_ Judy thought.

"But some... _things_ have come up. I'm not exactly sure how you all are going to feel about this, I didn't know what to think either." His expression was emotionless, and voice was dead flat.

Judy felt the room suddenly go cold, blue even, as rain began to slowly tap the windows; to be let in.

"So I'm going to take a little time to explain this; that's why I wanted to get everyone I didn't want involved in this out."

Judy felt a little prick at the back of her neck, her fur went chill.

There was a short pause, and it let the wind outside share its cries, howling and pushing the rain around.

"The government is asking us to keep this classified as well. So congratulations all you, you're all officially sworn in with classified information. As you know, the release of classified information from the government is punishable according to the court, not the body receiver of information."

_This doesn't sound good. Even Chief Bogo doesn't look like he fancies the sound of this._

"Anyways, after all that--shit, this is the main meat of this. As you know, each officer is given one of these;" The chief held up a standard, ZPD issued collar controller. "And it seems as though we have a rat among us."

Judy cocked her brow.

The chief shifted from his stance on the podium, to the greenboard, where he held a single stick of chalk.

"It's always been apparent to me that people have been making duplicates of these at their homes, which we outlaw. They either are of very poor quality, or never work. They often manage to mess with ours by using pulses of frequencies that interfere with ours, but don't have the same frequencies. They only cause short, sometimes even millisecond misfires, nothing really painful or important to us."

Then, he proceeded to write a date.

10-09-83

He pointed to the date.

"On this date in time, sixteen years ago, a pattern of deaths reported by the instituted D.P.C.U. started to initialize, a steady amount that seemed to keep staying steady, keeping steady, and be steady to this day."

He wrote a  _100_ on the board, with an arrow to a  _1000._

"Just like that, the amount of predator collar related deaths jump to 1000, almost all located in Zootopia. That's 900 deaths that just spiked up, and somehow it's managed to go under our radar for this long. Now, many of our officers have been employed for longer than that, so there is no clear definition as to who it is."

A Coyote from the back raised his hand. "What are you getting at sir?"

The chief grunted. "Either somebody high in position from the city, or an officer here, is stealing either the codes to our servers for the collars, or the remotes themselves, distributing them."

The room fell to the scramble of quick and quiet conversations amongst themselves. Judy twitched out of a little trance she had, and quickly took out a little pad of paper she saved for notes while writing tickets, and a pen, jotting down some of the information. Her mind did a little leap when she realized some of the notes she took at home were some of the same that he wrote down here.

"Do we know why?" Judy popped her pen up to ask a question, and he shook his head.

"Not as of currently. That's, what these are for." The chief raised raised up a stack of red files.

Judy's ears shot up.

_Am I finally getting a real case?_

The chief noticed her happy expression, and rolled his eyes. She died down the happy dial a little bit.

"The government is asking our precinct to launch the investigation, and I have hand picked those in the room today for this."

His eyes turned to Judy. They were cold as steel.

"So don't make me regret it."

The chief groaned and rubbed his forehead, eyes squinting shut.  
He eyed the roam again painfully.

"Excuse me, I seem to have a bit of a migraine," He coughed, and continued. "I'm assigning partners of three, so there will be one partner group with two partners."

Judy felt bad for being happy, she felt bad for being joyful that she was getting her first case, over something so grim and terrible.

"Group 1, the rookies; Hopps, Fornian, and Frey. I'm expecting big things from you, I'd say you've all been here around the six, seven month time period. So quit the kid shit, you've all got yourself a real case."

Judy balled her fists in determination, thoughts filling with planning and setting goals; those thoughts were interrupted by an annoying male squeal, followed by a feminine groan.

Her head spun to what she assumed were her partners, a seemingly over enthusiastic male Coyote, and a rather pessimistic looking female African Dog.

The Dog raised her paw up, her eyes etched with anger. "Hey, Chief, can I get with some actual cops? Not fluffbutt and my number one biggest fan here? I thought we were only partners for parking duty!"

Judy already wasn't starting to like her, and her rather uninterested expression only detoured her more.

The chief scoffed. "Don't worry, I don't think Officer Fornian has a problem with you around. Now come get your case files, and get out."

Judy beamed as happily as she could, she wouldn't let some coyote and dog keep her away from being successful.

Besides....

....the extra pay would help her get Nick to the forest faster.

**XXX**

The trio padded through the station's fenced parking lot, which held their cruisers and S.U.V.'s. were held. The group was slowly trudging through the heavy rainfall, letting their fur become heavy with the weight of grey water.

"My name's Jimena, and I guess we're all stuck working together." The African Dog, which was around the same height as Nick, hesitantly held out her paw to shake Judy's.

Judy shook back tentatively, and stopped to look at her. She was pretty in a rough, tomboyish way. Her expression was tired and uninterested, a little burning resentment etched into her brows.

She turned her attention to the Coyote, who was standing next to Jimena happily, almost  _too_ happily. His tail swished back and forth, even hitting Jimena's hip accidentally. She muttered distastefully.

"Hi!" He yelped, and Judy flinched at his hyper personality. "I'm Diego, Diego Fornian! It's so nice to be working with you! This is my partner Jimena! She's really nice and--"

The Dog rolled her eyes, clamping her paw around his muzzle. "He's annoying. Don't mind the shit-for-brains."

Judy eyed her rebuttedly. "I think he's very nice, you shouldn't be so harsh on him."

Jimena rolled her eyes. "Rabbit, you would be annoyed too. Especially when all he wants is to get in your pants."

Judy arched her brow.

Jimena clicked her tongue as if she were making things simpler for her. "He likes me. A lot. And it's not great to hear every five seconds of the day."

Judy rocked on her feet, widening her eyes and nodding as if she cared. If anything at all, she liked the Coyote more than her.

"Well, we should get to our cruisers! I'm excited to start working with you Judy!" Diego shouted again, making Judy's sensitive ears fold in pain.

Then he turned to Jimena, acting a little secretive. Judy still took notice, and he whispered into her ear.

"Uhm, J-Jimena, about th-the date night I asked about?" His whisper was the equivilant of a normal inside voice.

Jimena grumbled. "I'm still thinking about it."

_So he asks her out on a date, and she just keeps him at bay with "I'm thinking about it"? And she knows he's naive enough to believe it? That kind of sucks._

She same him nervously cup her ear again. "C-Can you tell me when you make up your mind? You've been saying that for the past month--"

"You saying I can't make up my mind?" She interrupted, trying to shut his trap.

He turned away flustered and embarrassed, his tail between his legs in shame. "N-no, I'm sorry."

She sighed, and slugged him the shoulder. "Lighten up butter cup, come on, we've got a case to get on."

Judy hesitantly boarded their cruiser, taking the drivers seat.

In her head, she was already formulating a plan, laying thoughts out.

_I'd be damned if I let my first case be ruined by some pessimistic dog._

**XXX**

**YOU'RE NEVER GOING TO BE**  
**FORGIVEN.**

 _Shut up, you're only_  
_me, my own thoughts I made_  
_up, me myself and I._

 **_YOU'RE GOING TO BE_ **  
**_STUCK THIS WAY FOREVER, AND EVER._ **

**_YOU'LL NEVER WASH ME AWAY; WASH_ ** **_IT_ ** **_AWAY._ **


	14. Deep Blue Dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Or rather, a nightmare begins.

_What's driving you so hard_   
_to make me fail?_

_**You.** _

_No, I'm not! I hate you!_

_**Then why do you** _   
_**keep me here? In you?** _

_Because my stupid mental_   
_condition puts you there!_

**_Tsk Tsk, you may_ **   
**_have had the mental_ **   
**_condition, but you're wrong_ **   
**_Nick. You put me in you,_ **   
**_you put you in you._ **

_Why on Earth would_   
_I make you then?_

**_Well, Nick._ **

_**Deep in the recess of every mammal** _ **_is envy, a restless evil._ **

_Making some strong words up and fitting them together won't do anything this time! You think you can just come and insult her? She saved my world!_

**_Wrong, Nick, WRONG! You_ **   
**_saved your own world_ ** **_,_ **   
**_she didn't do anything!_ **   
**_You're so naive to even_ **   
**_think to believe in her!_ **

_No... no, you're lying!_

**_Am I Nick? Am I really?_ **   
**_All these years it's just been_ **   
**_you and I... how could I betray you?_ **

_I don't believe you!_   
_You... you liar! Fuck you!_

**_She is everything you worked_ **   
**_to shield yourself from,_ **   
**_all hope is lost and you're_ **   
**_just a sad little puppy willing_ **   
**_to believe all these lies she is, and all the lies she's promising!_ **

_No... please stop.._

**_Nick, she's_ **   
**_the end of everything for you._ **   
**_Go ahead, try her, and you_ **   
**_won't be so happy when_ **   
**_you realize you already have_ **   
**_a foot in the grave._ **

_Die._   
_Die please, I hate you._   
_I WANT YOU TO FUCKING_   
_DIE,_ **_I WANT YOU TO_ **   
**_FUCKING DIE!_ **   
**_YOU MOTHER FUCK,_ **   
**_WHY CAN'T I KILL YOU?_ **

**_I HATE YOU!_ **

**_XXX_ **

"Where do we start the search." Jimena grumbled from the seat beside Judy, scrolling through the case files thoughtfully.

To be completely honest, Judy didn't know either. Start a search with little to no information on an anti-predator ring implanted somewhere important in the city; or at least with connections to the city?

Already, the weight of doubt started to crush every fiber in her body.

"I think maybe we could ask around?" Diego interrupted her thoughts from behind them, sitting in the back seat meant for the convicts.

Judy felt a nerve twitch when Jimena clacked her tongue. "Yes let's just go and ask people Diego. And possibly, if we ask the wrong people, let them know we're onto them?"

As much as Judy hated her tone and aurora, she was right. That made things even harder. They needed someplace to start. Anywhere.

"What if we go down to the D.P.C.U? Maybe we can get some insight on suspicious stuff they've seen." She put her suggestion on the table, and the cruiser went silent.

Judy turned her head at the two, then back to the wheel. "What?"  
She asked tentatively, a little confused.

"That place is freaky Judy. It's just a taboo for predators I guess." Diego admitted, letting his ears fall behind his head.

Judy turned to Jimena. "Diego is correct Judy. It is unsettling there,  _Es dirigido por el diablo_."

Judy inhaled strongly, and gripped the steering wheel. "Well, I mean, I could go in alone I guess, but I figure maybe asking around there might help us get a lead or something."

Diego's happily thumping tail let everyone in the cruiser know of his agreeal.

"Sorry Jimena, but I'm with Judy. I know it's gonna take a little bit of getting used to, but--'

Carl snapped her teeth back at him. "No talking from you. You stay quiet."

The car grew silent, as they stayed still in the parking lot, the casually expected tapping of rain slathering the world below again.  
The rabbit sighed, and relaxed her paws, before clenching the wheel again. "Jimena, I really think it's best if we start there, it doesn't matter how scary it is; what matters is we find a lead."

The African dog growled something under her breath, before crossing her arms over her breasts. "Okay. Show us the way, bunny rabbit."

Judy exhaled, frustrated, and turned the keys to the car on. "Okay. Whatever you say,  _dog._ "  
She mumbled dog under her breath quiet enough just so she could hear it. It left a little twinge of satisfaction in her when Jimena looked puzzled as to what she mumbled.

With a press of the pedal, and a turn of the wheel, the cruiser woke up lazily and tiredly. Its wheels crunched against the wet gravel, and the windshield wipers cleared Judy's vision of the wet, deep blue world outside.

Her small nose inhaled the sweet, tangy scent of rain.

"Well, off to the D.P.C.U."

**_XXX_ **

Nick was bored. Alone, left at Judy's apartment, with nothing to do. Or eat.

"Fuck me, I have nothing to do." Nick said aloud, missing hearing a voice in the room. He chuckled a bit, hearing him curse. The fox cupped his paws over his mouth, and shouted  _"Fuck me!"_ again, laughing a little.

"You are a stupid fuck, Nick." He laughed to himself, before a knock against the wall silenced him.

 _"Shut the fuck up will you?"_ An annoyed voice came muffled through the old, wallpaper caked walls.

Nick chuckled more, before collapsing onto Judy's bed, which creaked and heaved under his weight.

He pressed his face into the bedsheets, and inhaled deeply. The sheets smelled just like her.

"Fucking perv." He muttered to himself through the bedsheets, before turning onto his back, and staring at the aging, yellow popcorn ceiling.

"I'm borrrrreed," He cried aloud, as if somebody in the room cared. All that consoled him was the echo of his own words against the walls.

The fox sat up slowly, frustrated and blew air angrily out of the corner of his mouth. "Ok, whatever, I'll...."

He thought about what he could do to keep himself occupied, given the fact that is wasn't for another ten hours that Judy would come home from work.

He smelt his shoulder fur, and it stunk of wet dog. "Guess I'll take a shower then." Nick threw himself upwards, stretching his lazy body to wake up.

The fox went through the normal, relaxing shower routine, and came out of the steamy restroom, in his birthday suit. His paws reached for a towel hanging on a rack, but found it was meant for a rabbit,  _a female rabbit_ at that. It was pink and barely covered his torso, and ended just below his crotch.

"Well, nobody's around I guess." He muttered, eying the room with paranoia acting as instinct.

Given the all clear, he snatched the towel from around his waist, and rubbed his fur till it was just damp.

Satisfied and lazy, he threw the towel on the ground, and collapsed once again onto Judy's bed.

All that was heard was the ticking of her wall clock, and the heavy tapping of rain consuming the small room in an envelope of isolation.

The deep, blue light emitting from the window painted the room in its heavy, dull light. It only caused for a deep, heavy, dark feeling to drown the room in its hue.

Like a car headlight with its high beams on, a blinding light suddenly exploded in front of his eyes noiselessly. He growled painfully rubbing his eyes, slowly re-opening them. He found it to be Judy's laptop turning on from a notification.

"Christ Judy, turn your brightness down." He mumbled, stomping over to her desk, pressing the  _f3 key._ Soon, the screen simmered down to a lazy burn and he turned away from it.

Then a little twinge of curiosity tickled his head. He turned back to the laptop, where he snatched it and moved to her bed, plopping the device and himself down.

The notification was from a chatroom, with the name  _Patrick Woods_ above the bubble. The text he had apparently entered read:

 _I've done a little digging, and found some shocking information Miss Hopps. It seems as if there is no searchable picture of him on the internet, but his name is right here on the D.P.C.U. website. The only other information I could find is that he is some sphinx/wolf hybrid. I find it quite odd a predator hybrid is running that disgusting department._   _Something here is wrong._

Nick had only seen his boss once, but he knew. He knew.

It was so confusing, but he knew.

Hadn't he never seen him with his collar on?

**XXX**

"Well, here we are. The D.P.C.U. department." Judy squinted through the heavy rain, as it pounded down onto her ears and head. The air was blue, the sky was a deep blue that was so punishing and damning.

"I can smell the bodies now. I hate the people here.  _Hijos de puta._ " Jimena growled, raising her forearm to shield her head from the rain.

Judy was about to ask what  _Hijos de puta_ meant, before Diego cringed slightly, elbowing her.

"C'mon Jimena, language." He grew concerned through gritted teeth, looking around for anyone who may have hear her.

Before she could possibly fire back, Judy put her hands on her hips authoritatively. "Well, we're not getting any drier standing it in the rain, let's just go on in. Shall we?"

Jimena grumbled and stomped on alongside Judy. Diego, was letting his curious eyes and head wonder, exploring the world around him.

"Why is it always so dark and indigo outside, even during the day? Why is the world only blue here?" He asked nobody in particular, letting his nose inhale the bittersweet scent of rain.

Jimena's feet smashed against the pavement, kicking up water from a small puddle. "Because God made it that way here Diego, it's his way of punishing this city for what it is." She spat, gritting her teeth and kicking back around, where they reached the doors of the D.P.C.U.

The walls were an aging, dark green marble, and the glass doors were outlined with calcium ridden gold trim.

The building loomed over them like a shadow in an already darkened room, and a bolt of lightning shattered across the sky.

Judy placed her paw on the handicap button, and the door automatically opened for them. The hinges creaked like rusty, cemetery gates.

Immediately, the metallic sharpness of blood filled her nose, and the contents of the rabbits stomach churned and boiled.

Jimena took notice of her instant discomfort. She bent down by her side, smirking with a devious satisfaction.

"Welcome to the meat packing plant, rabbit. Where people like me and Diego go when we're dead."

**XXX**

_**Nick.** _

_Leave me alone. I really don't_   
_want to hear your bullshit._

_**I have a warning for you,** _   
_**since you refuse to listen to** _   
_**me.** _

_I don't want to hear it, fuck off._

_**Listen to me you ungreatful,** _   
**_unintelligent little shit. You think she's your friend. She's going to bring your fucking world down._ **

_**You'll see.** _

_She isn't. She saved our fucking world, you're the ungreatful fuckwit._

_**Really Nick...** _

_**Nobody ever suspects the wolf in sheep's clothing; until it has its jaws around your throat.** _


	15. The Chocolate Factory

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A rather distasteful title, I know.
> 
> Judy and her partners discover the reality of the D.P.C.U.'S oppression and sadistic nature.

"Judy Hopps, ZPD."

The woman at the main lobby desk raised her nose, and Judy was surprised to find a black furred sphinx attending it.

"May I help you," She took a gaze at Jimena and Diego behind her, "Officers?"

There was a bit of silence, as Judy was attempting to conjure up some words. She tapped her foot against the deep green marble floor.

Before she could speak, Jimena pushed her aside, rather impatiently. "We're here for an investigation, and it would be for research purposes if you would show us where the data you keep for the dead is."

Judy growled angrily, clenching and unclenching her fists. Diego gave her a light tap on the shoulder, motioning his hands downwards.

 _"Calm down,"_ He whispered, recognizing Jimena's rude gesture.

The woman blinked flatly a bit, and gave the most dead, dry answer Judy ever heard. "Let me ask Mr. Schwitzer." The woman picked up the desk phone and dialed.

Judy's ears sprung up. Hadn't she heard that name before? Yes, she had, Ethan Schwitzer...

Nick's boss? That was right, so then... the leader of the D.P.C.U?   
Before she could say anything, she felt Diego step by her, and nudge Jimena on the shoulder.

"What did you do that for?" He whispered.

Her grunt was that of annoyance. "She was taking too long. I want to get the hell out of here."

Judy turned her attention away from their argument, and instead gazed at the aging, gigantic elegance of the D.P.C.U.

The walls, floor, and ceiling were all a deep green marble, the trims were all calcium crusted gold. There was not a single window in the almost palace like interior, but rather, deep yellow lights hanging from elegant lamps all across the ceiling.

Shadows were cast everywhere, a fountain was behind the reception desk, and above the woman talking on the phone was the logo and D.P.C.U. letters in a faded gold sign. Calcium buildup seemed as if it bled from the letters and logo, onto the green marble wall.

It was sickening how such a place filled with death, built upon death, was so elegant. Even then, elegance showed its age with the dying architecture.

"Mr. Schwitzer says thirty minutes." Judy's ears turned to the desk, where she informed them of his decision.

Diego nodded, and was handed a ring of keys. "The data room is the same as the body storage. Please do not tamper with the bodies, but the data is on the left side of the room. We ask you go  the data side, and the data side ONLY. The rest of the area is prohibited for investigation."

Jimena already started walking to the left wing of the building, her footsteps echoing off of the giant ceilings.

Diego cried after her, "Jesus, hold on Jimena!" Judy quickly ran along with him, but not before taking a last glance at the woman at the desk.

She eyed them with an evil glare.

Gulping hesitantly, Judy caught up with them, only to find Jimena and Diego bickering again.

"Please calm down Jimena, this place is just as freaky to me as it is to you!"

"No more talking. Let's just get this over with."

Judy arched her brows down angrily, wanting to protest Jimena's rash attitude.

"I don't understand why you're so rude Jimena." Judy finally broke, looking up to her as they walked down a long hallway.

The African wild dog looked down to her, brows furrowed to copy Judy's angry expression. "Maybe you didn't get shocked by some stupid group of kids this morning." She scowled, rubbing her neck.

Judy's expression changed to a cautioned questioning glance. "Shocked?"

Jimena flew around, and snapped her jaws furiously. "Yes, shocked!"

A beep went off, and her eyes dialted. Her body spasmed, and her breath hitched for a brief second.

Judy was puzzled, before there was the pungent odor of burnt fur.

Diego's whine only led her to piece together Jimena's sudden rush of silence, she was being electrocuted by her collar.

After a few long seconds, the hum of fiery electricity was ceased, and a beep from the collar was emitted. Jimena tumbled to the floor onto her side, moaning in pain.

"Jimena!" Diego cried, rushing down to her body. The African Dog coughed violently, swatting him away.

"I am fine," She spoke through gritted teeth, eyes shredding through the air, giving Judy a glance of pure hatred. The rabbit gulped.

Diego helped her up, and checked behind her collar with a finger for any serious injuries.

"I think you're fine," He breathed, satisfied with his overlook on her neck. His eyes turned to Judy, and for the first time they showed just a little hint of anger. He said nothing, but rather helped Jimena up, and stood awkwardly, his face red.

With a little shock to Judy, Jimena wrapped her arms around her partner, resting her head on his shoulder.

Diego turned as red as a rose, but, embraced her warmly as it was. "Thank you." She stated bluntly, before quickly escaping his grasp.

Judy would've sworn she saw raw lightest blush on her cheeks.  
Diego turned his body to the door, and with a swift move of his paws, used the keys to unlock it.

With a push, the door opened into a gigantic warehouse; and a pungent, deathly smell. Judy, again, felt the bile rise in her stomach. Jimena wrinkled her muzzle, and Diego stood uncomfortably.

Judy's deep lavender eyes gandered to the right side of the giant "room", which was pretty much the entire building. It was more of a warehouse, if anything, where shelves of covered dead bodies captured the space. The air stunk of death and rotting flesh.

To their left, was a desk, a few shelves on each side, two filing cabinets that acted as desk legs, and papers littered everywhere. A desk lamp shined dully in the cold steel of the giant warehouse.

"I guess these are the files and stuff." Judy gulped, taking slow advances toward the desk.

Jimena pinched her nose and wafted the air. "Jodido cristo.." She spat, still rubbing her tender neck. Diego followed directly in front of her, a bit protectively if anything. The whole warehouse itself seemed menacing, like a giant steel trap.

With caution, Judy hopped up onto the itchy, dusty fabric rolling chair, and stood on two feet in order to see what was on the desk. What was laid out looked new, but papers beneath the crisp ones looked old, folded, and crusty. Some even had the faint sign of bloody pawprints.

"What exactly are we looking for?" Diego popped up next to Judy, peering at her eyelevel curiously. The rabbit herself wasn't exactly sure. She snapped her fingers a few times, attempting to spark up something to start with.

"Data." She began first, hoping to pick up some traction. Her paws sifted through the papers on the desk. "Dates... um.. death records... uhm.."

Her eyes peeled to the corner, were an old box screened computer sat, the screen dusty and the box grimy. The words  _Dell_ were carved into the plastic, a dull silvery paint covering the carves, and in the "e", was a power button. She pressed it, and her ears perked up to here the crackle of static electricity seep from the computer monitor. The screen faded to a dull life, and the desktop was alive and breathing. The background held the text  _D.P.C.U. DATA ROOM COMPUTER - WINDIGO XP OPERATING SYSTEM_ alongside the D.P.C.U. logo.

There were icons of folders scattered everywhere, but there were three she was specifically looking for.

"Does... anyone have a flashdrive or something?" Judy asked the two, but didn't bother to take her eyes off of the screen.

Diego's ears popped up, and he happily dug through his belt pouch, and pulled out a memory stick with the letters  _ZPD_ printed on in white.

"Got this little thing when I was hired as a present. I thought it might come in handy sometime." He beamed happily, and handedly it to Judy. Jimena turned to give an approving looks, one that was soft but still carried her tough expression. "Good thinking Diego."

He grinned stupidly and blushed, turning his head away. "Thanks." He beamed.

Judy uncapped the flash drive, and leaned her whole body over the desk, where the computer tower stood, dusty with age. She blew air into the USB slot, before inserting it in place with a swift, metallic click.

A ding rang from the computer, and right away, Judy clicked on three folders to drag into it,   
 _DEATH RECORDS - (UPDATED HOURLY)_  
 _DEATH DATES - (UPDATED DAILY)_  
 _CAUSE OF DEATHS (UPDATED HOURLY)_

"There we go, now let's see to those papers." Judy rubbed her hands, and ejected the USB out, shutting the computer off in the process.

Jimena grabbed a file box from a pile, and folded it into into its box shape. Her paws were caked with dust.

Diego and Judy dug through the file cabinets for anything important looking. Judy found old designs for collars, a map of demographic death areas that looked recently printed, and old crusted papers on information about the D.P.C.U.

Diego found many images, and in nearly all the images, were black sphinxes. He tossed them into the box, and wiped his paws on his uniform.

"There, that should do it, now to get the hell out of here." Judy felt satisfied, but her body felt dirty and sick with dust.

Just as the group were about to begin their exit from the gigsnric storage house, the sound of a giant motor echoed and erupted, followed by the loud whirr of machines running. Judy whipped her head around, only to find...

...the gigantic shelved aisles that were storing bodies on trays, were moving. The trays themselves were moving somehow, but it became clear to Judy that they weren't storage aisles, they were conveyor belts that were just strung up and stacked to give the illusions of shelves.

"Why the heck are they moving?" Diego questioned, twisting his head in curiosity.

Judy gulped, and shoved the flash drive in her pocket, slowly advancing from a jog to a run. Holding the box on his shoulder, Diego ran after her, with Jimena right by his side. After what seemed like forever, they reached the other side of the warehouse, and above them, the "shelves" continued through holes in the walls. There was a door before them that spelled doom with a sign reading  _DANGER: GRINDER INSIDE._

Ripping the door open, Judy froze in place, face becoming frozen, nose filled with the icy cold heat of death. Her voice attempted to scream, but it came out as a strained screech. Jimena and Diego emerged from behind her, and both died in their tracks. Their jaws lolled open in horror, and Diego cried a displeased moan.

"Oh my God!" Judy cracked, falling to her knees, eyes glazing with tears of terror, and her voice shattered like ice.

The shelves ended halfway in the room, and dropped down into a shredder; where the bodies of men, women, and children were grinded into a pulpy mess.

Blood occasionally splattered about, and the sickening nice of bones crunching and the wet snap of skull killed the already deceased.

"Oh.." Jimena croaked, her knees felt wobbly as they watched the bodies fall, and become victim to the viscous, steel trap below.

"I thought they buried them!" Judy sobbed, clutching her mouth with terror, observing the nonstopping bloody mess. "They say they bury them!"

"I-I-I..." Jimena couldn't form words, and instead, glued herself to Diego's side.

The pulp of once living predators floated like crimson, slimy ocean waves, before it was finally swallowed down by the blue steel jaws of evil gears.

Judy looked up, and saw a fox child, woman, and a wolf fall, their bodies already lifeless from a death received long ago.

Even then, she could've sworn she saw the little boy's eyes open, sad, cold, dead, but full of innocence. In his eyes, she saw Nick.

Then they fell into the pulp, before the teeth of gears emerged like teeth, and crunched them down between each other, splattering their existence across the room. A string of blood splatted across Judy's face, but it felt like a searing hot iron. She watched as the little boy was swallowed up, then reemerged, body twisted and punctured, then swallowed again, and the cycle repeated till he was just as unrecognizable as the flesh of the other mammals pulsing like maggots, before finally being swallowed deep in the gears. The falling of bodies and their grinding never ended, and for Judy, horror was forever etched into her soul, her existence.

Still, in her eyes, in that little fox boy who was ground up into a crimson, slimy, sloppy mush; she saw Nick.

"G-Get pictures of this." Judy breathed, and felt bile rising in her stomach, before she couldn't hold it, and belched on the blood slicked floor, her throat hot and raw with vomit.

Jimena cupped her muzzle, to prevent the upchucking of her own guts. Diego shakily listened to Judy, and pulled out his phone, paws trembling like someone was electrocuting him.

He took pictures slowly and regrettedly, of the whole room.

"What the hell are they  _doing?"_ Diego sputtered dropping to his knees.

"They were lying of burying bodies... they grind them... I don't understand.." Jimena cracked, feeling her body grow weak and cold.

Judy wiped her mouth of vomit, and couldn't take it, fear coursed through her veins.

"L-Let's get out of here!" She yelled, and struggled to get to her feet, but Jimena and Diego followed, slamming the door behind them shut, and running out of the gigantic....  _Slaughterhouse._

They ran through the halls, they ran past the lobby, and they ran through the parking lot.

Judy knew the horrors now. She knew what the city did to predators when no-one was looking.

But what stuck with the rabbit, so deep in her mind, was the image of the little boy fox, who looked like Nick.


	16. Help Me I Am In Hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick goes to hell.  
> Judy orders a pizza.  
> Madness.

_Do you have anything to say to me today?_ ****

_**No. Instead, I have something to show you.** _

_Show me?_

_**You truly love her, yes?** _

_...yes._

_**Then come with me, Nick, let me show you what happens to lovers like you.** _

_**...** _

_**...** _

_**...** _

_So suddenly, claws reached out for Nick in the darkness, and in a flash, found himself in the fiery pits of..._

_...hell._

_Like a cold touch of a corpse, Nick looked beside him, and was mortified to find... himself. With dead eyes, blacker than the deepest of leads. His teeth were freakishly large, and his fur was matted and bloody. This was the form of the voice in his head._

_"Welcome to hell, Nicholas. Mother and Father taught us well about this place, we know all about it huh?" His tone was melancholy, dead, just like his face. The fur was peeling on his existence, like a dead skin mask. His expression was just as mortified as Nick's. Well, it was Nick._

_All around him, was flame, blood, and sulfur. Millions below them screamed as they were scorched eternally, had their throat slits forever by demons that were unlike anything ever imagined. The dirt Nick's feet were positioned on was rough, sharp, hot, and blacker than the deepest night time sky. It stained his fur like a reminder of the death they were trapped in. Screams were so loud that Nick's ears bled, but every cry was heard crystal clear, but the crystal was the sharpest of rocks when heard. It echoed off of the boxed, infinite sky above, shattering any bright light. The sharp barbs of impossible heat sliced his feet and his face. It took him a while to realize they were standing on the tallest peak of hell, the tallest mountain. He overlooked the holocaust before him, as millions were eternally slaughtered._

_Then, in front of him, his eyes seemed to cry eternally at what they say. It was he and Judy, stripped naked, and being... scalded alive in a fiery pot of red boiling water, with a satanic being above them, pushing them down with a rusted, bloodied pitch fork, drowning them. His eyes watched as they held hands in the boiling pot, as their faces were bloodied entirely, and Judy choked on her own slit throat. They had boils forming all over them, and Nick put his paw to in muzzle, shrieking as he realized there was a crown of spikes on he and Judy, made of barbed wire, rose thorns, and razors. The Nick in the pot croaked, shook, before again, the demon shrieked, and plunged the pitchfork into his skull, crunching with the thorns, shoving him back into the boiling water._

_**"DEATH TO THE INTERSPECIES!"** _ _The demon shrieked, as he continued to stir the two in their eternal pain. Just then everything went silent, and a hot breeze violently pushed through Nick's fur._

_**"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO THIS TO US?!"** _ _Judy screamed in the boiling water, her blood filled eyes full of pain and sorrow, looking over at Nick beside her, in the boiling vat. Nick dared to poke his head out of the water, giving her the most sorry look anyone could give, and a single tear leaked out of his crimson slathered head. His mouth opened to say he was sorry, by God he was sorry, but just as his lips cupped in sorrow, his head was once again thrust down with a stab from the giant rusted pitchfork, drowning him again under the flame filled, scalding water._

_Nick, from the distance, was on his knees, watching his body, naked and bloodied past recognization melted. His flesh began to drip, and he was crying, screaming sorry to Judy, who screamed as the pitchfork penetrated her back, snapping her spine to splinters. Nick screamed for her, before his throat began to finally melt away, dripping into puss and pulp._

_The cold muzzle came behind Nick, the real Nick, the cold muzzle of his damning voice. "You see Nick, God hates you and people like you. He wants you to die, there is no place in heaven for you. I am eternally chained to you Nick, this isn't real, but I'm a voice in your head. You've made yourself believe this is real, it might as well be."_

_Nick knelt there, as the hot wind turned cold, and finally, the skeleton of himself erupted, letting out a shriek as the last pieces of his flesh dripped from his skull. Judy's skeleton propped up against his, screeching in horror, holding his bone hands, as her face dripped away and burnt up._

_..._

_..._

Nick screamed at the top of his lungs, cold sweat sticking to his fur like ice water.

His chest heaved up and down, eyes watered with horror, his dream was still burned into his retinas, faint highlights played over his eyes like a distorted projection. Even when he clamped his eyes shut, hell was still there; his and Judy's gory skeletons still interlocked, frozen in death.

"Judy!" He cried, like a child who cried for his mother in the night, afyet he had a bad dream. His breath wobbled and cracked, he dug his paws and claws into his temples, unable to bear the horror of the dream in his skull.

 _"Judy!"_ He cried, curling into his knees, trembling with isolation and terror.

The sky outside was an even deeper hue of blue, the early hours of night had set in, with the moon casting a faint reflection through the dense clouds.

The cracks of moonlight shone through the blinds of the room, and his mouth wobbled in absolute terror, terror that cast icy fear in his bones.

He sobbed again, clutching his skull tighter, claws piercing skin and drawing thin droplets of blood.

 _ **"J-J-Judy!"**_ He screamed, his skull exploding into raging heat, throbbing with pain. .

His fever had gotten worse.

After moments longer, his sobbing fell to sniffs and groans of pain, curling alone on a cold bed, all alone.

"Judy.." He croaked, and clutched his pulsing head.

"Judy..."

_**XXX** _

Judy closed the door to her car, and groaned, pressing her paws into her temples.

The rain outside was beginning to fall, and her brain ached with stress.

"Fuck." She groaned, looking back to the passenger seat, where her fair share of files where laid out. Jimena and Diego had split up the files between the three evenly, so they could study to a further extent, the secret content the D.P.C.U. withheld.

They went off together, God knows where. Judy could care less at the moment. Her small body was bleeding with stress and exhaustion.

She put her keys in the ignition, and just as her paw turned the key, a trembling shook through her stomach.

It pained with hunger.

 _I've got no food at home;_ her eyes furrowed with frustration, and turned to her purse, which resided by her feet.

Groaning with the knowledge of having very little money left, her paws reached for her wallet, and unzipped it to find a single, crisp, ten dollar bill left.

She pounded her paw against the steering wheel, growling, _"_ _damnit."_

Controlled by nothing more than her hunger, her paw picked up the phone again, and dialed the number in her contact from the last time she ordered Pizza.

There was a momentary buzz, before the static of an old telephone crackled, and the voice of an angsty teenager rang over the phone.

_"What do you want."_

Judy clenched the phone in her paw, grinding her teeth together, beyond annoyed. She wasn't up for anyone's bullshit.

"What was that?" She growled warningly, imagining her punching the lights out of whoever was behind the phone.

She heard his voice shrill up instantly. "I meant hello, what could I do for you m'amm?"

 _That's what I thought,_ Her mind spoke smugly. "Medium three cheese pizza." She drawled bluntly, and held the bill in her hand.

"Sure m'amm, pickup or delivery?" He asked hastily through the poor quality phone signal.

Judy wasn't thinking straight, her head was fuzzy and eyes threatened to shut from exhaustion. "Yes." She mumbled, feeling her consciousness threaten to slip asleep.

"M'am, I asked pickup or delivery?" He asked, the voice was confused at her answer.

 _You said yes, Judy. You must sound so stupid,_ She mentally smacked herself, and afterwards, did so physically. She made sure to get her palm flat and hard against her cheek, so it'd hurt harder, to wake her up. It worked for the most part, and she whimpered when her cheek burned with fiery pain.

She squished her eyes shut, clenching her hands into fists. "Uhm, pickup." She had to think of what to say, her head was that mushy from today's work. Not only was it overclocked from going through and memorizing some of the papers in the ZPD, but there was still, freshly branded and cut into her mind; the memory of what she saw in the D.P.C.U.

She couldn't look at a predator the same, without thinking of the bodies being tossed into the grinder; blue steel jaws of death that created an ocean of pulpy, bloody nightmares.

The whole thing was nightmarish.

"M'amm? I said $10 on the dot, tax included. It should be ready in.." There was a short pause, "Ten minutes."

Judy sighed with a little relief. At least it'd be done quickly. "Thank you," The rabbit said through a sticky, tired throat, slumping in her seat.

There was nothing more from the other line, it just hung up.

She tossed her phone down on the other seat, and massaged her temples a bit more, listening to the pitter patters of rain against the car. "Alright big girl, wake up." She spoke to herself encouragingly, and sat up straight, yawned, then pulled the car out of parking, taking off down the misty, deep blue night.


	17. INTERMISSION

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> zootopia's primed and best x-keyword text/voice search engine

_Z-KEYWORD_

_zootopia media catalogs_

_objective: explicit content and trending subjects_

_begin recordings___   
_STATIONS CONNECTED:_   
_znn_   
_foxxx news_   
_z news_   
_z gossip_   
_zoo to hell classic horror channel_   
_visit zootopia_   
_serenity talks_   
_the local conspirator_

_ALL MEDIA IS GATHERED AS IS, AND IN NO CONTEXT._

**_begin transmission . . . ._ **

_the local conspirator_   
_"Moonlight is thought to turn some people into strange creatures to drive others mad."_

_ZNN_   
_"It's being brought up by a now, nationally recognized case! This bear lawyer, out of Zootopia, somehow has leverage to change the structure of modern life! And no, we are NOT politicizing this for publicity!"_

_Zoo To Hell Classic Movie Channel_   
_"Does the moon actually possess such strange powers? Or is it all just... lunacy?"_

_Serenity Talks (8:30 AM)_   
_"It seems as though, change is finally among us! While their case has very little backing, it does seem as though hope will be the leading source of power for this trial."_

_Foxxx News_   
_"The funny thing is, the ZNN is in SUPPORT of the collars, claiming it supports social order, and the are calling life without labels lunacy, yet they call for labeling amongst themselves specist! And no, we are NOT politicizing this for publicity!"_

_Z News_   
_"It's crazy to wrap your head around, just think about it, all you walks of life out here in Zootopia. How does it even exist?"_

**_Z GOSSIP *EXPLICIT*_ **   
_"It's horrifying. Yet they see collars as so normal. I don't understand! Don't they know we want life as well? Isn't all wrongful killing, murder? So citizens of the world, let me ask you a question; what kind of_ **_sick fuck_ ** _finds_ _serenity in murder?_ _"_

**_end transmission__..._ **


	18. Bubbles/Death Blooms

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy and Nick take a bath and eat pizza.  
> Also, the world is changing or something,

The apartment complex was dead quiet, its inhabitants subdued to sleep. The old drywall walls were smelling musty, the wallpaper was crackling off in the lobby, and the wood paneling running along the door ways through all of the stairways was stained and old. The complex, in its obviously aged fashion, was what Judy called home. Her eyes turned to the main desk, in which the old armadillo who ran the place gave a gentle wave.

The wrinkles under her eyes cascaded to just above cheeks, they were sad and tired, but that elderly, warm smile burned through her age. Judy remembered her first encounter with her as a little aggressive, but soon, she became used, and even cared to see her around more.

Her lips, cracked and aging, moved with her hoarse vocal cords. "Late nights, mm?" Her voice was sweet, and it reminded Judy of her grandma.

She was a not only feeling stressed by the case, but awfully homesick. It all lead to her mind being a jumbled pile of heat and strenuous activity.

"Yeah, heh, they really kill me." She paused in front of the desk, smiling tiredly. The armadillo readjusted her glasses, still keeping her smile.

"I know your situation very well, the feeling is mutual. Goodnight, enjoy your pizza dear." She chuckled a little, pointing at the oversize box she held in both paws.

Judy gave a chuckle back, nodding her head. "Thank you, goodnight to you as well."

The armadillo nodded, then shifted her gaze down to her papers, becoming lost in financing information, followed by her age catching up with her mind. Dementia.

Judy let her ears take in the silence of the old, sleepy complex, before taking steps across the tan carpet, into the elevator on the far end of the lobby. Pressing the fifth floor button on the building with her elbow, the rabbit waited impatiently for the doors to close. After a few rounds of thumping her foot in tired frustration

Judy pressed the door to her apartment open, box of pizza larger than her in one paw, her other dragging a heavy box of case information from the D.P.C.U., and her body slumped with absolute exhaustion.

Her bloodshot, heavy eyes gazed around the room, only to see Nick was gone. She let out a frustrated sigh, stepping into the room, and kicking the door behind her with a loud crack.

She tossed the box of pizza onto the table, and turned around to lock the door.

The rabbit stepped back, and sighed happily, knowing that work ways over, and she had a day off tomorrow.

Her attention turned back to the dim room, with only the lamp on her desk spreading light into the old apartment.

Her eyes continued to search for Nick. He wasn't buried in the bedsheets of her bed, or under the blankets of the makeshift bedding on the floor.

She bent down and checked under the skirt of her bed, Nick wasn't there. She opened the closet, and Nick wasn't there.

Her heartrate quickened, and she stood still, fidgeting her paws together. Her foot drummed on the floor.

"Nick?" She finally decided to call out, and waited for a return of sound. All that was heard was the ticking of her analog clock, and the wash of train outside the iced the world in black water of the night.

"Nicholas?" She raised her voice in alarm, beginning to stamp her foot a little more worried.

This time, she heard the churning of water from the bathroom, and her ears rose up with caution. "I'm in the bath tub Judy," He called back, and Judy bit her lip a little, placing her paw on the door.

"C-can I come in?" Her voice was tired and fragile, which held a small edge of lust behind her tired, half lidded eyes.

"If you want to," She heard his voice call back, and it trembled for a reason Judy thought she might have known.

Her eyes glanced, to the box of pizza, and she ran a paw between her ears.

 _Stupid Judy, stupid hormones, he barely says he's in love with you, you say you are too, and now you want to crawl into a bathtub with him?_ She stamped her foot, judging what was right or wrong.

She shook her head, and began to strip herself down bare.  _You're going to regret this Judy, this is stupid!_

Now completely nude, Judy felt her body go hot, as she grabbed box of pizza in her paws, placed her phone on top of it, and was breathing shakily.

She pressed her hip against the door, pressing it open to find the fox halfway in the tub, clutching his skull.

His stress was acrid in the air, in the old musty bathroom, in the scummy and old tiles lining up around the bathtub.

She felt her knees weaken, and her grip on the box tighten. "Nick, are you okay?" She shook with every step toward the tub, she felt the chilling cold of the tile rush up the soles of her feet into her spine. She felt regret burn up in her tight stomach, felt arousal slowly tingle her lower parts.

"No," She saw his claws begin to dig into his skull, his teeth clenching with pure tension. "No, I'm not okay."

Judy froze in her place, locking her gaze on his pained expression. She felt the cold air of the bathroom curl between her legs, and run up her spine.

"D-Do you want me to leave you alone?" She swallowed thickly, taking a few steps back from the tub.

The fox turned his head, and had his breath stolen from his lungs. He felt a lump form in his throat, and his stomach suddenly felt hollow.

His eyes fixed on her nude figure, practically running up her curves, which midway through her stomach, the view was blocked by the pizza box that was almost too big for her body in her paws. Her breasts were petite and covered by a tuft of white, soft hair, indicating her femininity. She held a bit of a worried expression on her face, and Nick couldn't feel more happier with her compassion for him.

His expressioned lightened up a bit, and Judy giggled when she heard the echoed thump of his tail against the tub.

"I was wondering if you were hungry too, so... uhm... I'm sorry, this is a little weird isn't it?" Judy tittered embarrassingly, rubbing her foot against the heel of her other. Her eyes looked down to the side, she felt like she was too filthy for his gaze of innocence. Like she was pushing herself too hard upon him.

She realized this in that moment too. She was using being kind and giving him things to satisfy herself, to get in the tub completely nude with the fox.

Her ears drooped down in shame behind her head. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't be doing this." The rabbit quickly spun back around to avoid any awkward confrontation, stepping away in shame.

The churning of water and the thumping of the bathtub echoed in her ears, and her body froze dead in its tracks when she felt the wet, matted fur of his paw wrap around her arm to stop her.

Everything jumped out at her, she didn't want to move. She heard the plopping of water from his body reaching for her out of the tub. She felt the pulse of his body through his paw, which held the firm grip.

Her body trembled, and she clenched her thighs together, taking shaking breaths. A cold river ran up her spine again, and she tried to suppress a small whine that threatened to emerge. Whether is was from the feel of his wet paw, or the thought of his body and the weight of his gaze.

She breathed louder, more shakily when she felt him rub the pad of his thumb against her bicep. "You can come in and stay with me if you want." His voice melted into the air around her head, her ears growing red hot, but the rest of her shivering body still freezing in the bathroom air. She squished her eyelids shut solid.

She couldn't resist his voice his gaze, whether it was because she was attracted to his innocence that she wanted to take for herself, or perhaps it was; despite the scars he had given himself, the fantasizing attraction of herself with a fox's body. Or maybe it was the trust she had built with him, the emotional attention that he gave to her. Something she craved so much as a child, something she never really got... he offered to get, as long as she was their for him too.

Or perhaps it was all of those things. All rolled up into one big package of a rollercoaster of emotions.

When she reopened her lavender eyes, her body slowly turned around to face the fox, who was leaning his body over the tub.

Her eyes stayed stuck on the matted fur of his chest, which dripped with tub water. The look of care in his face that she always loved to see so much.

The rabbit placed the box of pizza on the toilet seat right beside the tub, and the fox resided to his sitting position against the end of the tub, back against the tile wall.

Judy padded heavily with small steps right to the edge of the tub, looking down at the water, and his outstretched legs which bent at the knees out of the water, like orange islands.

 _I can do this,_ She thought, and lifted her leg over the edge, placing her foot in the warm water. Following up with the next foot, she gently dropped her body into his chest, getting her body wet in the process. She didn't care, she snuggled and pressed her breasts, body, and torso into his, inhaling exhaling heavily.

"You're so warm," She felt her voicebox quiver, as he placed his paw on her back.

He chortled quickly. "Thanks." Judy decided to unclench her thighs them, pressing her hips into his, letting go of her cares and worries. They both tittered embarrassingly, but Judy still enjoyed the pressure sensation notheless.

"Having fun there carrots?" She heard him tease, looking down to see her giggle.

"Sorry," She gushed, pressing her paws through the thick, wet fur of his chest. Nick smiled, and reached his scarred arm out towards the box on the toilet seat, setting her phone off, on the edge of the tub.

His paw lifted the box up, and reached for a slice of the pie, bringing it to his lips and chewing happily.

"Thanks for the pizza Judy." The fox held the pizza happily in his paw like a little child would hold his favorite toy.

"You're welcome Nic--" Just before she could finish saying 'you're welcome', their attention turned to her phone, which vibrated loudly on the edge of the tub.

Judy sighed, sitting up in his lap, hearing the water twist and convulse around her with her readjusting.

Cell phone in hand, she saw a notification from the ZNN app, which read in the text bar;   
 _Grizzly Bear Lawyer from Zootopia, Gains National Case in Testing of Legality and Banning Of Predator Collars._

Judy's heart lifted into her throat, and it seemed as though things were somehow falling in place... with finding piles of evidence and taking from the D.P.C.U, her assigning to the case... everything was seeming to fall into its rightful place.

All that was left... was to finish saving money to take Nick to the vendetta forest.

"What's up Judy?" Nick asked, placing a paw on her waist and another on her stomach.

She beamed happily at the screen, and patted his thigh happily, splashing water all around them.

"Look Nick!" Nick peered over her shoulder, taking a bite out of a new slice of pizza and his expression lightened up in disbelief.

"Holy shit," Was all he could mouth.


	19. A Moment with El Diablo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zootopia's Satan makes another appearance.  
> Judy and her partners must face an ultimatum.

"Sir, what are we going to do? This bear, and his case, is dangerous to the fabric of society we have created for this country! People are going to see into our world we've created!" A weasel informed a large black sphinx, who sat back in his leather seat behind a perfectly organized mahogonay desk.

The sphinx held his hand up, flexing his fingers into his palm, thinking angrily. His deep yellow eyes burned holes into the weasel, who was sweating profusely. "This bear, Hammet, cannot do anything. He has no information on the D.P.C.U, or anything that goes on with us. We sure as  _fucking hell,_ are not going to let anyone in now."

The weasel held a finger up to say something, but was interrupted by the sphinx raising his hand up to stop his talking. "All he has a case based on ethics. Ethics don't win court battles. Facts and information does. This bear is going to crash and burn, just like his case. I warned him, I sent him a message to his wife, and he didn't listen. I'm going to make sure they receive..."

He leaned over the desk, looming over the small weasel, his gums splitting apart to show pearly white fangs.

"...The  _bitter end_ of things.." His voice trembled with venom, and the weasel smelled his carrion breath, shaking in his place.

The weasel gulped, and finally mustered out words amongst a fit of stuttering. "Th-That's the thing s-sir. A p-police officer by the name of J-Judy Hopps, she and a-a few other officers went and searched th-through the information room at the complex. T-they have info on our in-inner workings!"

The sphinx's expression flatlined, before carving into pure fury. "Are you serious? Tell me you are joking."

The weasel quietly whined in fear, shaking his head.

The sphinx roared, digging his nails underneath his desk, flipping it over. The weasel flinched at the sound of papers, glass, and his desktop being crunched and shattered.

"Kill that bitch who let them in, call the security now and tell them to take her to the fucking shredder!" He roared down at him, claws retracted, his voice crunched and gainy.

The weasel held another finger up, keeping his head down, staring at the mess on the floor, along with the overturned desk. "T-to be fair sir, you told her to let them in."

The sphinx thrust his claws around his collar, holding him up to his face. "I told her to call security, to overpower them, and throw them in the shredder, and apparently the bitch didn't do it!"

The weasel turned his head away, avoiding those thin, razor fangs that armed his jaws.

"Y-yes sir. I will tell them. Is t-there anything else you need d-done?"

The sphinx stared intently into his eyes, and sighed contently. He set the weasel down gently, and straightened out his own tie.

He took a moment to calm his rage induced breathing, before exhaling narrowly. His eyes turned back to the weasel in a more business-like manner. "Tell the Investigative team to start snooping through Ms. Hopps' files, anything you can get on her. Also, get one of them to spy on her. I'd like to know as much about her as possible."

The sphinx put his finger to his chin intently, thinking carefully. "If somehow fate decides Ms. Hopps and that son-of-a-bitch Patrick Woods cross paths, the D.P.C.U. is going to be ruined. So will the fabric of this country I have so easily created."

The weasel waited patiently on the floor, twiddling his fingers together. "Anything else sir?"

The sphinx looked out to his window, which chopped light into thin lights by the blinds. He held his hands behind his back.  
"Yes. If at anytime, inform them that they find Ms. Hopps, or Mr. Woods' wife alone, kill them. Violently. And tell them to send me a picture. I'd be more than happy to set them up as examples of "predators that got out of hand because they had their collars removed" by a third party."

The weasel felt a cold shiver run up his spine, and he licked his dry lips. "Kill them sir?"

The sphinx's expression stayed dull. "Yes. Kill them. Mutilate them. Especially the rabbit. Any chance they get of her alone, tell them to kill her."

The weasel gulped, swallowing heavily. "Y-yes sir. Shall I also inform the front desk to get you a new desktop, and get the janitors to clean up this mess?"

The sphinx turned around to face him again, shifting his let hand to his pocket. "Yes, right away, please. Inform them of my plans first."

The weasel nodded, and began to stiffly walk out of the dark, dreaded room.

XXX

Nick's eyes fluttered open, to find himself in Judy's bed, fully clothed in pajamas. The aroma of department store flower scent filled his nose, and he smelled of soap from when he bathed with Judy the night before. A sheepish smile crept up his lips, while a pink blush ran under his fur down his cheeks.

The fox yawned, stretched up, and cracked his back out, groaning in pleasure as the tight knots in his back relaxed, spreading comfort throughout his body. He fell back down against the bed again, curling into a comfortable ball, taking the pillow beside him against his nose, inhaling the faint smell of Judy, and the strong scent of  floral soap they bathed in.

The fox pulled his muzzle away from the pillow, and his eyes widened in horror at what he saw. Sitting at Judy's small table, in the old wooden chair.... was himself.

It didn't make sense. Nick knew he was having another episode, but this one had no signs. It had just come on to him! Instead of vibrant green eyes that Nick had commonly noticed himself having everyday he looked in the mirror, this reincarnation of himself had milky white eyes.

He was blind.

"Hi Nick." It spoke, a friendly smile unexpectedly springing on his lips. It stretched its back out just as Nick had earlier, groaning in satisfaction. "I'd wave to you, but I can't see a damn thing."

Nick shook his head violently, pressing himself against the corner of the headboard of the bed and the wall.

"You're not real." He growled, pressing himself as flat as he could against the corner.

It laughed, knocking its head back in a playful laugh. Too playful. "Maybe so Nick, but I'm real enough. I'm all in your head, yet you believe I exist so much, here I am. I am just a creation of your head, and you're losing your mind."

Nick snapped at him, extracting his claws in preparation. "No, I control you. Why am I seeing you..."

It leaned forward, and smirked back at him, and the milky white of his eyes evaporated till he could see the eyes behind them, they were green just like his. It was an exact copy of him now.

"Stay with her Nick. I was wrong. She's good for us."

Nick stared back dumbfounded, blinked, and like that, he was gone.

XXX

"You guys were looking for me?" Judy clicked the door behind them in an interrogation room, where Jimena and Diego sat. She mentally smiled at how close they were sitting now.

Jimena peered around the bunny, past her surroundings; here eyes uneasy and anxious. An unusual look for the African Dog.

"Judy," She took a deep breath, and motioned for her to sit in the stainless steel chair in front of her and Diego. The rabbit felt anxiety seize her midsection, her heart raced at a pace faster than usual.

"You have seen the news about the bear?" Jimena asked, her hispanic accent slightly more uneasy than usual. Judy nodded, a knot of anxiety building in her stomach, massaging her knuckles with an opposite paw.

"Yes, I know him just a little too, why do you ask?" Judy gulped, shifting in her seat, digging her claws underneath the steel chair.

Diego yelped excitedly, having Judy's ears wince in pain. "You know him?"

Judy brought her fingers up timidly, mumbling. "I mean, not personally, but I met him in a chat room."

Jimena waved her arms around to call for a refocus. "This is good news. We have an easier outlet."

Judy cocked her eyebrow, swallowing down another lump of uncertainty. "Outlet?"

Jimena and Diego turned to each other, with the coyote giving a slight nod back.

Judy was left with a tense knot of uncertainty floating in her stomach. "We're thinking of sharing the information we got from the D.P.C.U. to him." Diego sighed, looking over his head, as if there were a dark cloud blotting out the light above.

Judy's paws relaxed slightly, but her mouth stumbled for words. She was at a loss for their thoughts of insubordination. "Isn't that highly illegal? We could lose our jobs, and get thrown in Jail! Do you know how long I've wanted to be an officer, this is my life's dream! I can't risk it!"

Jimena's face twisted angrily, suddenly standing up from the steal chair, towering of the little rabbit, fangs beared. "You value your job over the wellbeings of millions! It us our duty to protect and serve justice to the world, and this--" She roped a finger in her collar, outstretching it for her to see the box which held the needle and shocking mechanisms. "This is not justice. This is cruelty and suffering, something my family, Diego's family, and all predators had to endure."

She jutted out a violent finger down towards Judy, who sunk deep into the steel chair.

"And you are going to help us get this information to him. If not," She hesitated for a second, looking to the side. She breathed heavily. "If not, I will kill you."

Judy's veins froze, as her eyes locked with hers. Jimena was dead serious. Her gaze was cold, full of malice, and bottled anger. She was about to explode if Judy didn't agree to help her. She would  _kill_ her.

Diego suddenly kept off of his chair, putting his paws on her shoulders. "Oooo-Kay, Jimena, calm down, nobody's going to kill anyone, she has perfectly good reason to be afraid to help. This job is her dream and she--"

Jimena snapped her jaws back at Diego, thrusting his paws off her shoulders. "And is it not my dream to be rid of these things!?" She roped her thumb in the collar, and then tapped Diego's with her index finger.

"Even as officers, Diego, they do not trust us. Isn't it your dream to rid yourself of this Diego? Doesn't every predator alive dream of life without a collar?" She held her paw on his forearm, and stared into his eyes. The fox gulped, looking away to the corner.

"Yes."

"Then to hell with her dreams!" She shouted, turning back to Judy, claws popping out her claws. The rabbit whined, pressing herself against the back of the steel seat.

"You say you've spoken to the bear before?" Jimena snarled, pressing her face closer to the rabbit, the lines on her pearly white fangs becoming more apparent.

"Y-yes." Judy breathed, her eyes roaming around her looming figure, attempting to find a way out.

Jimena licked her lips, and thought for a moment. She raised her finger back towards her, "Can you speak to him now?"

Judy looked around Jimena, to see her laptop sitting quietly on the steel table. The rabbit hesitated, but instead, gulped down her submission.

"Yes, I can."

Diego still kept his head away from Jimena's outburst, and strummed his fingers against the table.

Jimena grinned widely, showing her pearly white fangs again.

"Good."  
  



	20. Ultimatum

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Judy and Co. risk their lives and jobs to give Patrick the information he needs to undoubtedly win the case for predators.  
> Nick finds more evidence and beats the shit out of it and brings it to Judy.  
> I'm not joking.

_I can't sit here anymore! I refuse to lay around and do nothing!_  Nick had his paws crumpled to his chest, laying woozily on Judy's small creaky bed.

His eyes were glued to the white popcorn ceiling, watching the dark, deep blue light from the blinded windows move like snails across the room.

His stomach tickled with anxiety, but his brain was heavy with laziness. He was tired of sitting around in Judy's apartment all day, and doing nothing but keeping himself locked up in there.

Maybe it was because he felt safer in there. Away from the harsh wind of the real world.  
The sharp barbs of reality.

He felt like everything was okay there. Like everything was fixed.

The fox's eyes darted to the window, where the dark blue light of the evening city pressed through the pane of glass.

Sighing, the fox kicked his fuzzed body off of the bed, landing on his feet, and stretching his back with a dizzying yawn. Regaining stability, the fix walked towards the front door, and opened it to find the woes of the outside world.

The air was sweet with the scent of cut grass and fresh rain, and the world was painted blue from the neverending coulds shrouding the city in its eternal December-esque twilight.

The fox felt a billow of cool air curl between his legs, and he rubbed his arm with the opposite, shivering.

"Momma look, it's a fox!" A voice echoed from down the balcony, where a little bunny and her mother at their apartment a few doors down.

The mother held her child's paw tight, her other arm clutching a brown sack of groceries; and Nick saw her face drain of blood. "S-sir, no predators are allowed in the c-complex."

Nick cocked his brow, and felt a little anxiety build in his core. "J-Judy didn't tell me about that."

The mother's face suddenly relaxed just a fraction, and she twisted her head, somewhat confused. "Judy? The police officer who lives in 304?"

Nick swallowed hard, and turned around to see the door number, which he never really noticed. Small black numbers stapled out  _304_.

He turned back to the mother. "Y-yeah."

Nick had nothing else to say. What would stop this mother and her daughter from having him removed from the apartment? Arrested for being there, or even, killed from the collar? All of it was rational thinking, that was the scary part. Anything that could even be considered crazy in an irrational world, well, had every reason to be rational.

Silence covered the balcony again, only to be interrupted by a sudden crack of thunder across the deep blue sky.

The little bunny squeaked, and the mother flinched with a fleeting shock of instinct, and she spilled everything in the grocery sack under her arm.

Nick watched pitifully as the mother sighed discontentedly, squatting down to attempt and salvage the mess of food, sundries, and.... a remote.

Nick felt a little tinge in his stomach, as he saw the remote was an exact clone of those the ZPD used to kill or forcefully shock predators via their collars.

Only the ZPD logo was non-existent on the deep blue remote. The same, deep dark blue of the world around Zootopia.

Nick's anxious feeling ebbed away, into some sort of... dull anger. His hand snatched the remote, and he almost snarled at this thing.

The mother gave a whine, and tried her hardest to seem demanding. "Hey, give that back, thief!"

Nick looked down to the mother, his brows furrowing into a condescending fury. "Thief? These are illegal for citizens to have!"

Nick took a double take to stare at the remote, and look back to the mother. He attempted to come up with words to scream, to roar, to figure out what the fuck this thing was doing with her. All he felt were hot coals burning in the background of his throat, propelling his body into a bottled rage. The fox spun around and hurled it over the railing, where the thing shattered into hundreds of plastic and electronic pieces.

The mother took a few steps back, leaving her groceries on the damp, puddled floor.

Nick spun back to her, and felt violence surge into his paws. He felt hate breath through his soul. The fox knew better than to go and rip her apart, so instead, like a bottle neck exploding, the fury leaped to his jaws.

" ** _WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GET THAT?_** " He stuck his claw out to her, his fangs revealing like ivory peaks of death. The mother fell back into a puddle, and her daughter began to cry.

The fox took slow menacing steps, growling uncontrollably. His feet splashed small puddles into rivers and mist. " ** _YOU TELL ME RIGHT NOW!_** "

The rabbit woman began to heave her chest, her heart beating visibly out of her dress.  
She shook her head, as if she was trying to convince herself a fox, so encased in fury, was not threatening her.

It was real.

Her mouth quivered, and her nose twitched, and her ears winced at the combination of her daughters sobs and Nick's heavy breathing and growling.

"S-sh-she-Sheffield Avenue, in the alleyway! I-I was looking for one!" She cried, scooting away from the advancing fox. Her paw clasped her daughters paw, dragging the young kit along with her. "A-A- A sphinx was selling it to me! Please leave me alone! I won't tell anybody you're here! Please leave us alone!"

Nick had heard all he needed. His breathing slowly calmed, and the anger seemed to reside, but not disappear. A kind of red serenity settled into his veins, and with hesitance, rather sloppily picked up the rabbit's groceries into the sack, and left them at her feet.

She gave back a frightened, confused look. Nick stared her down, and with a quick glance of some kind of hesitation, turned back around, storming out down the balcony stairs.

His mind was set on getting to the street the woman mentioned, then the ZPD, to find and...  _show_ Judy. This was something she wanted to hear... no,  _ **see...**_

Before the fox knew it, he had exited the complex, turning to his right from the drive way into the parking lot, onto the sidewalk. Cars whizzed by, splattering the heavy falling rain across the sky. Everything was a  bluish-grey, and the continuous slaughtering of the rain upon Nick's fur seemed to start bringing that anger back to brew.  
A truck blasted by, and the mist from the busy street infested his nostrils.

A cool shiver ran up his spine as he waited for a stopwalk sign to signal to walk. Nobody was on the sidewalk with him, only the iron monsters of automobiles on the water slathered streets. The signal was given, and the fox continued to stomp on down, his fur now dripping and heavy with the world's disscontempt for mammal-kind. He shoved his paws into his soaked sweatpants, hoping to receive some kind of warmth. None was received.

Visibility was reduced to almost twenty feet, as the constant stream of cars speeding along the road splashed water into a thick, freezing mist that coated the sidewalks, newspaper vendors, and the windows to shops lining the busy streets.

Next up, was a left turn, then another painfully long crossing section, then another right turn.

Before the fox knew it, he was staring at the opposite side of the street, where he could see the figure of a black furred sphinx in a trenchcoat, hiding out in am alleyway.

The fox gripped his knuckles, and drew out a long, hard breath. His claws extracted, and a growl formed in his throat.

**_XXX_ **

"

It's nice to meet you in person, Ms. Hopps," Patrick Woods sat at the far end of the steel table in a questioning room. The blinds were drawn, and the lights were dimmed to make it seem like it was out of service for repair.

The bear looked beside Judy, who resided on top of the table on the far side. He observed the figures of Jimena and Diego, who were sitting in the same steel chairs as he was, lined up to his right.

He adjusted his tie, breathing a little heavily. "Although I am not sure as to why these two are hear."

He took a gulp when he heard the light snarl of Jimena sound. He forced a little laugh, moving his paw to the back of his neck. "B-But they are pleasant company."

Jimena exhaled, standing and leaning on the table, shifting her hips. Diego watched her hips on the downlow.

"Listen, Bear, I have heard from you on the news, and know well of you and Judy's meeting."

Patrick looked over to Judy for help, or anything to say. He had never even met the African Wild Dog before, and here she was pressing words into him. It was all a little daunting.

"Y-Yes, but what does bringing me here have to do with this? You said you'd make this worthwhile, a-and I have testimonies to rehearse and prepare for when my case gets into the course in a few weeks--"

Jimena interrupted by crouching down, and plopping the file boxes of information from the D.P.C.U. they retrieved. His attention was immediately peaked, even though the boxes were not labeled, and the contents were all but a mystery to him.

Jimena placed her claw on one of the boxes. "In here, is hundreds of files we retrieved from the D.P.C.U, along with photos we took, and the file from a case we were assigned yesterday. And it's all classified, confidential, the whole goddamn nine yards."

In an instant, the bear reached over the table, gripping the box handles in his paws, dragging them towards him, removing the tops, and dug through the contents. He was at a loss for words, his heart hung in his throat, as he quickly scanned over file after file, and picture after picture. Their were huge, freshly printed books of death dates, causes of deaths, and death records. They were printed from the gargantuan files Judy had downloaded onto her flashdrive.

"I'm not even going to ask how you got this," The bear stuttered, and looked back up to them. "Do you realize you rookies have done more for the civil movements for predators, than any other mammal in history? In what, a day?"

Judy liked the sound of that. She tried to suppress a grin.

He breathed heavily, observing more of the files, before stopping, looking over the pile on the table, and then attacking the next box for its contents.

"This is all a morbidly disgusting..." He held up a picture of dozens of predators at a protest, laying in a clusterfuck of dead bodies. "But this is... this could very well get rid of collars for sure. The mistreatment, the lies they spread about their procedures... this uproots everything."

He looked to them, and saw Jimena looking upon him with a small grin. "I can only ask, how am I to be allowed to use this?"

Jimena's grin ceased to ever exist. "You aren't, by law."

The bear's excitement faded to nothing. It too died, just like Jimena's grin. Then Diego leaned forward, sharing his words. "But, Patrick, we are all willing to risk our jobs, and even prison time, to leak all of this information to you. If this illegal act can uproot, well, downright,  _sensitized genocide,_ then we're willing to do it. You just need to help us craft some elaborate lie."

Patrick's grin reappeared, but in a thoughtful sort of sense. "Well, I'm not the best at lying."

Judy finally chimed in, hopping off the table to pace around. She brought a knuckle to her mouth, and gently chewed to attempt to generate a thought. "Well, I have a friend, who's generally seen as shifty, he might be able to help us out..."

Her words were interrupted, when the door clicked, and everyone's blood froze.

If the officers were found sharing the information, they would be fired, and thrown in prison for, God knows how long.

Judy tensed up, and was totally unprepared to lose everything... until the doorway revealed something else completely different.

Nick was standing there, soaking wet, and in one paw, held the collar of a rain drenched sphinx who appeared to be bleeding in multiple places, and in the other, a briefcase that was also equally drenched, he threw the sphinx into the room, and Judy then could see the blood on his paws. He realized that the sphinx's injuries were not scratches, they were claw marks, and a large bite mark on his head. He then tossed the briefcase into the room, where it exploded open, and dozens of ZPD collar controller clones scattered the floor. All the officers in the room's eyes widened at the scene, and Patrick scampered from the chair to pick up the remote duplicate.

He put a hand to his head. "This is all so overwhelming..."

Judy's first instinct was to run to the fox, throwing her arms across his chest in a hard hug.

"Nick! How could you come in here like that! The security cameras are going to pick you up, and they're going to throw you in jail!" She looked up to his eyes, and hers were already starting to water with worry.

Like a magician, Nick instantly reached under his shoulder, and pulled out a CD in a case.

A small grin was pulled up onto his sopping wet fur. "I wonder if they'll ever notice their security camera footage is gone."

Judy laughed hysterically, pressing her face into his chest. She looked back up at him, letting her chin move her head on his chest while she talked. "Where did you even find the CCTV room?"

The fox shrugged hastily. "Maybe the ZPD shouldn't label where all their rooms are on maps every twenty feet; they're everywhere on the walls."

From the background, the bear held a bootleg remote in his hands, and tossed it on the table.

His attention turned to the fox, who she saw Judy holding on to so tightly. The bear couldn't help but smile.

"Ms. Hopps, is this not the friend you were talking about with me?" He stepped aside the table, walking towards the fox to shake his hand. Nick complied unhesitatingly.

Judy released herself from him, and nodded up at the bear. "Yes, this is Nick Wilde."

Nick looked down at Judy, and then back up at the bear. "Nice to meet you, Nick."

Nick nodded back. "Likewise."

The fox's attention turned to Jimena and Diego, who he assumed was Judy's Co-workers. He waved subtly.

"Hey."

Jimena waved coolly. "Hey."

Diego was a little more enthusiastic. The coyote skipped over the body of the unconscious sphinx, and came to shake the paw of Nick.

"Diego Fornian, nice to meet you! Judy's talked about you when we we were driving back to the station from the D.P.C.U... So, you used to work there? How was it, did you--?"

Jimena came from behind and gently nipped Diego with her claws, making him yelp loudly. Nick chuckled at their dynamic.

"You'll have to forgive him, he's loud most of the time." She wrapped and arm around his neck, and gently leaned on his side. Diego blushed madly.

A friendly silence consumed the room, and Judy then looked to the unconscious sphinx.

"Did you bloody him up like that, all alone?" She asked, nudging his side. Her gaze trailed up to his face, where a shameful, yet slightly prideful expression creeped onto his muzzle.

"Yeah..."

His gaze too, fell on the body of the bloodied sphinx. Soon, every mammal in the private room observed the body, which snored loudly in a beaten sleep.

Nick's voice filled the room. "You're gonna want to interrogate him after he wakes up--" The sphinx interrupted him, and cried out in his sleep for his mother, like a little kit would; And the whole room chuckled.

Judy gave a flat, sort of half annoyed expression to the fox. It had no real anger behind it, it was more sarcastic if anything.

The fox rubbed the back of his neck, laughing a little. "Geez, I might've hit him a little too hard."


	21. Goodbye and Goodnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world never sleeps, but Nick finally can.

**Two Years Later**

Nick Wilde stared out from the balcony of his new, shared, quiet forest home, out at the endless wilderness that surrounded him. A large lake was nestled behind some huckleberry bushes down a couple hundred feet away, and the sky above was a dark, but docile, melodic grey. The air smelled of rain, and the fox took in the scent gratefully, pressing his forearms deeper against the natural grain of the guardrail.

It was everything he had ever wanted. Sometimes, he had wondered if it was still a dream. All he would have to do to make sure it wasn't, was rub his throat. The anxiety of it all being a dream would subside... when all his fingers could grab at was fur. No collar. Just fur. In fact, sometimes he'd do it just to remind himself of how lucky he was. Of how fast the whole thing went. Of how the whole country was rid of it so quickly.

He sighed sentimentally, and looked below to the muddy, mossy, grassy forest floor. He could almost picture his old family van parking, and an excited, undeniable little Nick Wilde bursting out with excitement to prance around. The memory faded as soon as it came, and all Nick was left to look at was the same forest floor, with a small sedan and a ZPD cruiser pulling in to park next to it. Those things were a sight for sore eyes, and Nick hated looking at them,  _no matter how much_ he had grown familiar with them.

A single drop of water fell from the sky to kiss his shoulder, and it had the fox gradually looking up, no words, no real emotion, just peace. Similar drops of rain slowly began to paint the wooden balcony a seemingly darker color in little splotches here and there. Nick opened his maw slightly, and let a single drop of the rain drip onto his tongue. It tasted sweet, like mints and honey.

It was lonely at this time of day, the birds were quiet and the lizards in the brush wouldn't cross any unsheltered paths, because night would be on its way soon and the owls would be out to eat soon.

The sunsets on the tree covered hill the house was on allowed for the spectacular sunsets to be seen, but the overcast today instead painted the sky that strange harmonic grey the forest seemed to have on rainy seasons. Nick was okay with that.

When he got sentimental like this...  
  
  
  


...he'd think back to that stuffed courtroom, where Patrick presented his closing argument to the case. The bear himself knew what would happen once he were to exit the supreme court. Nick and Judy could feel the tension with all the jurors that stared tentatively at the bear and his last words. The evidence of red tape, mismanagement, and cruelty had been painted so perfectly by Patrick, yet the prejudice of the whole situation and possibly the jurors made the outcome so stupendously unpredictable. Diego and Jimena sat beside them, and Nick had never seen Jimena exhibit any form of  _fear,_ but there she was, gripping Diego's paw, eyes watering with worry.

Nick held Judy's paw and held his breath once Patrick sat down.

The jurors were dismissed for a brief moment.

Nick had some time to whisper quietly to his lover next to him.

"It's been going on for thirty days Judy... do you still think we'll win?"

She didn't hesitate. "I think so. I'm only worried about  _Patrick's_ wellbeing once he steps out of here. Prejudice doesn't stop with the passing of a law, and  _these mammals we're fighting against_ ** _hate to be told no._** "

Nick was about to say something quiet when the jurors came back in and took their seats. They all looked drained.

In that moment, Nick memorized the courtroom's atmosphere. It stunk of rain from outside, the tension felt worse than any anxiety attack, and he was gripping Judy's paw as if it were his mother's.  
  
  
  


"...Nick? It's pouring out here."

The fox snapped out of his memories and turned to see his lover, and roommate dressed in her ZPD uniform. He still couldn't believe she'd make the one hour commute from here to Zootopia just so he could be happy.

"I know," Nick admitted, only seeing now it was pouring and he was like a drowned rat. "But it's ok. I'm here. This is the real thing."

She laughed softly, and stepped out the doorway of the sliding glass doors, to be outside, willing to be overcome by the rain. It was ok now.

"Sometimes I have no idea what you're talking about." She crossed her arms and looked up at his eyes humorously, but tenderly.

Nick looked at his own arms, the signs of any past scarring fading, and crossed them. "But that's why you love me."

The rabbit giggled and pulled him into a hug, nuzzling her head, which was soaked too, into his chest. "It is, Nick. That's why I love you."  
  
  
  
  
  


Sometimes Nick wished Patrick hadn't taken the case, it could've been anyone else. Someone more mean, even. Someone easier to forget. Someone who didn't leave behind a wife who was pregnant with his child. He was gunned down as soon as he stepped foot out of that courthouse, by a prey supremacy group. Nick nor the entire ZPD was surprised, even with the massive amounts of security that surrounded the area. All it took was one good pull of the trigger and the bear fell dead.

Nick lay sleeping beside Judy, and held her into his side. Soon, they would have a baby of their own, Nick wrapped his paw around the bump forming on the rabbit's belly.

The fox was grateful he'd never have to deal with the real world again. He would stay here and take care of the house and raise their baby. They would get married and Nick would be happy. Judy would be happy. They were happy.

Nick Wilde was happy.

_**The End.** _


End file.
